Clear blue skies overhead, clement weather and a win-hungry Redwood varsity football team were prime conditions for an all-out battle against Marin Catholic (MC) on Saturday, Oct. 13. Despite their desire to bring home a win against their rival, Redwood faced a demoralizing loss of 42-7, dropping the Redwood Giants’ record to 4-4 and extending the Marin Catholic Wildcats’ win streak to four games.
With Redwood deep in MC territory with ten minutes into the first quarter, a controversial fumble by Redwood junior Luke McKernan led to a Marin Catholic fumble recovery touchdown and jump-started the Wildcats with a 7-0 lead. Redwood continued to shut down Marin Catholic’s offense, and the Giants were able to reach the red zone twice in the first quarter but could not put any points on the board.
As the second quarter kicked off, the Wildcats swiftly added to their lead on a touchdown pass to Marin Catholic junior Jimmy McCormack making the score 14-0, Wildcats. After their first failed drive during the second quarter, Redwood senior Alex Aguero took it upon himself to put Redwood back in the game. On a punt to midfield, Aguero returned the ball fifty yards for a touchdown, shortening the lead to 14-7.
With 25 seconds remaining in the first half, the Wildcats were not ready to let up the pressure. After a weak kick-off by the Giants, Marin Catholic was given the perfect opportunity to put more points on the scoreboard. At midfield with less than twenty seconds left in the half, Marin Catholic senior Ian Domingo hauled in a touchdown from freshman quarterback Michael Ingrassia, ultimately gaining back the momentum and pushing MC’s halftime lead to 21-7.
According to Aguero, Redwood came out of the locker room flat and not ready to play after MC gained substantial momentum, and this was the main reason for why they lost their composure and the game altogether.
“What killed us today was our mistakes. We played well in the first half, but during the second half, we weren’t ready to play. We weren’t working together as a team and were all over the place mentally,” Aguero said.
Head Coach Allen Talley also believed that because of the mental and physical mistakes, Marin Catholic was able to gain control of the game and steer it in the direction they wanted.
“Marin Catholic is a team where if you make mental mistakes, they will capitalize on it. We came out not ready to play and they knew it, and because of that they took advantage of us,” Talley said.
With Marin Catholic fired up and ready to play, they quickly began extending the lead, scoring two touchdowns in the first ten minutes of the third quarter, making the score 35-7 in favor of the Wildcats. Redwood’s offense, on the other hand, could not seem to put the pieces together and went scoreless for the rest of the game.
The Wildcats did not stop the beat down on the Giants, scoring one more garbage time touchdown to make the final score 42-7, Wildcats.
In the future, McKernan believes that the team needs to maintain high energy throughout the entire game if they want to have a chance at winning.
“We need to take away that flatness that came out during the second half and stay hyped all the way through if we want to come close to winning,” McKernan said.
The Giants will play their next game this Friday night at San Rafael at 7 p.m.
