Sep 2, 2007

M-A tops Saratoga in sloppy opener

Injured QB McCabe comes in to lead second-half rally

By Vytas Mazeika / Staff

Fittingly enough, the Menlo-Atherton football team picked up a delay of game penalty before quarterback Troy McCabe could take a knee to seal a 21-13 season-opening road victory over Saratoga on Friday night.

Despite being a sloppy affair that saw the teams combine for seven turnovers and countless penalties, the game proved exciting to the very end as M-A came back from a halftime deficit to hold the Falcons scoreless in the final two quarters.

"Everybody was angry, and we were just getting on each other because coaches tell us to get on each other and build us up," M-A running back Jamal Wilkins said of halftime. "They're a good team, and I think we were just overconfident a little bit. So we had to come out and play to our expectations."

McCabe, a senior signal caller who was wearing a Barry Bonds-like brace on his left arm, sat out the first half before taking the rest of the snaps. With Saratoga up 13-7 at halftime, resting the injured McCabe was no longer an option, and the change under center sparked the Bears (1-0).

On the opening possession of the second half, after a holding call and a false start forced third-and-15, McCabe connected over the middle with tight end Raymond Vanikolo, who shed a tackle and sprinted into the end zone for a 53-yard touchdown.

"First half, we were a little sluggish," McCabe said. "Second half we just came out fired up, ready to play."

M-A's Nick Dove picked off the second Saratoga pass of the half and the Bears could have claimed momentum. But a three-and-out set up the Falcons (0-1) for the first of two glorious chances to retake the lead with drives started 32 and 21 yards from the promised land. Instead, a missed 28-yard field goal and a fourth-and-3 play that actually lost 3 yards left the door open for M-A to take control.

On second-and-8 from their own 34, Wilkins took an inside handoff and sprinted 66 yards to pay dirt, making it 21-13 with just 7:31 left.

"We've seen that they've been blitzing their linebackers on the outside, and we just keyed on the inside," said Wilkins, who led all rushers with 123 yards on 10 carries. "Pounding them."

"The guys, they stayed up the entire game," M-A coach Bob Sykes said. "Every time we had the ball, I knew we were to move the ball. I just wanted a little better field position than what we had. I was proud of what they did."

On a last-ditch effort, Saratoga embarked on a 12-play drive that stalled at the M-A 19-yard line. Faced with fourth down, senior quarterback Kyle Guengerich heaved a pass that was intercepted just shy of the end zone by Russell Perkins. The Bears proceeded to run out the clock.

"We had a good offensive scheme, but I guess in the end it didn't turn up on the scoreboard," said Saratoga wide receiver Keon Ghafouri, who had a game-high six catches for 61 yards. "We believed to the end that we were going to win."

Saratoga took advantage of a muffed punt at the beginning of the game to score on a 4-yard Matthew Spencer run with 6:15 left in the first quarter. The Falcons ran the first 13 plays of the game, and their initial score was aided by a personal foul penalty.

All in all, M-A muffed a punt, fumbled a kickoff, threw one interception at the end of the first half, committed three personal fouls, four holding penalties, two false starts and the delay of game at the end.

"There's going to be a little bit of extra running on Monday, there's no doubt about that," Sykes said. "We made a lot of mental mistakes."

The two teams exchanged passing touchdowns in the second quarter, with M-A's Turner Baty completing his only pass to Sam Knapp from 32 yards out and Saratoga's Kyle Guengerich finding Cullen Bowen for a 29-yard score.

Guengerich finished 12-of-19 for 139 and a touchdown, but two costly picks. McCabe completed his only two passes - and he knows more is expected from M-A's quarterback with Valley Christian creeping up on the schedule.

"We want to win, but we want to play up to our expectations," Wilkins said. "Anything could've happened, they could've scored at the end."



E-mail Vytas Mazeika at vytas@dailynewsgroup.com.