Winning when game looked completely lost
Half Moon Bay finds way to keep cool in tight spot
When you are a reigning section champion and undefeated, there is rarely reason to panic.
Even in a game like this. Even when all seemed lost.
Even when the other team scored two touchdowns in the final four minutes to grab the lead with only 29 seconds on the clock.
Half Moon Bay coach Keith Holden said he looked at his players after Sequoia had gone ahead by five points Friday night and didn’t even feel as if he had to tell them to keep their heads up.
“I feel like we’re kind of gritty,” Holden said this week. “They’ve worked really hard, and a lot of them have played football for a really long time. We have a core group of kids who have all played Pop Warner together, and they have been in some close games.”
Miracle rallies sometime need a little luck, and Half Moon Bay caught a break when an errant kickoff gave the Cougars the ball near midfield.
A hook-and-ladder from quarterback Gavin Tomberlin to Hayden Von Almen to Jake Quosig moved HMB into scoring range, and the Cougars won 41-40 when Tomberlin threw a 10-yard pass to Quosig with 5.9 seconds left.
“The hook-and-ladder we ran — and I didn’t know this but should have known this — apparently is the same three guys who used to run it in Pop Warner,” Holden said. “Gavin would throw it to Hayden. Hayden would pitch it back to Jake. We run a different offense, but it’s essentially the same thing.”
So, where does this win rank?
“It’s right up there with the best of them,” said Holden, the team’s head coach since 2012. “We had a shootout in 2014 against Terra Nova, where we trailed the whole game and pulled off a win in the last second. But it was a little different. Against Terra Nova, we had the ball with two minutes left and were driving. It kind of felt like you were in it.”
Against Sequoia, the coach added, it wasn’t quite like that.
The HMB stands were in a state of shock as a half minute, half the length of the field and the Sequoia defense stood in the way of first place in the Peninsula Athletic League’s Ocean Division and an undefeated record intact.
“Here we are, we had a nine-point lead with four minutes left and Sequoia comes down and scores two touchdowns,” Holden said. “Everyone was kind of stunned. But our kids did what they were supposed to do. We try preach next play, next rally. The past is the past. We can’t change anything about it. Let’s move on to the next play.”
The motto is working.
Girls volleyball
The East Bay Athletic League standings are tight heading into final matches: Monte Vista and Foothill share the lead at 11-1, followed by Dublin at 10-2. … In the Diablo Athletic League’s Valley Conference, Campolindo, with Sabrina Smith leading the way, holds a two-game advantage with three matches left. … Archbishop Mitty, fresh from winning the Stockton Classic, wrapped up an undefeated record in the West Catholic Athletic League with a 3-0 victory at home on Senior Night over Presentation. The Monarchs head to the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions on a seven-match win streak. … Palo Alto, behind standouts such as Chelsea Fan and Fiona Green, is closing in on an SCVAL De Anza Division title.