Without a Division I prospect on their squad, the over-achieving Cougars upset the Bay Area's prettiest team on Friday to remain unbeaten; Mitty wins impressively over Palo Alto; Could Marin Catholic possibly move out of the MCAL?; De La Salle looks in late-season form.
Campolindo senior receiver Phillip Rei scored three touchdowns Friday in a huge 42-27 win over El Cerrito. Rei typifies the Cougars' over-achieving makeup and is considered the team's top playmaker, according to coach Kevin Macy.
File photo from Ed Oswalt
If you lined up
Campolindo (Moraga, Calif.) High School's football team in street clothes and put tennis rackets in their hands, you'd swear it was just a very large — in terms of numbers — tennis team.
That's coming from their coach Kevin Macy.
"If you walk around the campus, you're not going to pick out many football players on sight alone," Macy said. "There's no eye candy out there."
Which made Campolindo's 42-27 home win over
El Cerrito in Moraga on Friday so eye-opening.
The Gauchos from El Cerrito are the bling of Bay Area football, with at least a half-dozen Division I football prospects, including three of the state's top 25 recruits — Cal-bound receiver
Jalen Harvey, UCLA-bound defensive back
Adarius Pickett and USC-bound linebacker
Derik Calhoun.
Nick Fadelli rushed for a TD on Friday.
File photo by Ed Oswalt
Despite losing the eyeball test, the Cougars held a 453-194 edge in yards and never trailed against the Metro's then fifth-ranked team, coming off a thorough 35-7 win at North Bay power Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa.
"It was big win and a good win," Macy said Saturday of Friday's victory. "But none of it will mean much unless we don't win this week versus Acalanes."
Macy, who's coached in the Bay Area for more than 30 years between Campolindo and the Oakland Athletic League, is always looking forward.
Indeed,
Acalanes (Lafayette), ranked 24th, is 4-0, a Lamorinda rival and the opening game of the DFAL season. But Friday's win was awfully special.
Rather than sit way back and try to stay in front of El Cerrito's superior speed, Macy and staff took another tact, especially the second half when they gave up just six points. "We challenged them right at the line of scrimmage," Macy said. "We got in their face and I think it bothered them a little. I don't think anybody had tried that before."
Campolindo got big and somewhat unlikely contributions from quarterback
Andrew Zolantakis (306 yards passing, three touchdowns) and receiver
Phillip Rei (seven catches, 164 yards). The 6-foot, 170-pound Zolantakis is playing with a stress fracture in his throwing arm, according to Macy, and the velocity of his passes suffer. Nothing else about his game is fractured.
"He's very slippery in the pocket and he has a lot of composure," Macy said. "He kept so many plays alive with his legs it allowed our receivers to eventually get free."
Rei epitomized the Cougars' over-the-top performance. The 5-10, 165-pound senior receiver wants to play in college but is getting little attention even though Macy sells him hard. "On game day, he's nothing but a play-maker," Macy said.
Kevin Macy, Campolindo coach
File photo by Dennis Lee
He was covered all night by either Pickett (5-11, 180) or Harvey (6-1, 180). He caught touchdowns of 70, 32 and 9 yards. "He's got incredible hands, runs clean routes and elusive speed," Macy said. "He can really kick it into gear when he needs to."
Evidently, so can the Cougars, who rarely have much depth and start the season with inexperienced varsity players.
Each year, Macy plays primarily seniors and graduates starters. This season only two starters returned on offense and three on defense from a 10-2 squad. That squad returned just five starters from the 2011 team (14-2) that was picked to finish last in the DFAL, but won a NCS title and reached the CIF Bowl Division III title game.
Campolindo is 28-3 in its last 31 games.
"We don't have a stock pile of athletes or players at our school," Macy said. "We're always scrambling to train the next group. Our teams are very thin year-to-year. ... We always have limited size and strength but these kids give us everything else they have. They always work hard, follow instruction and give us everything they have."
Ten more takes from last week's games.
1. Archbishop Mitty (San Jose), with a convincing 34-14 win over Palo Alto on Saturday, challenged Campolindo for Bay Area team of the week honors after piling up more than 500 yards of offense, including 445 on the ground. Making Mitty junior quarterback
Brett Foley's 142-yard, two-touchdown rushing night especially impressive was that he was pressed into duty after starter
Trent Scharrenberg injured his ankle.
2. Northgate (Walnut Creek) (4-0) is right on the edge of making the MaxPreps Bay Area Top 25 ranking after defeating cross-town rival Las Lomas 31-17.
Eric Haynes rushed for 125 yards and three touchdowns.
3. Other teams knocking on the ranking's door are
Aragon (San Mateo) (3-0),
Burlingame (2-0),
Miramonte (3-1),
Montgomery (Santa Rosa) (3-0),
Moreau Catholic (Hayward) (4-0) and
Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) (2-1).
4. The Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division, led by 3-0 teams
Terra Nova (Pacifica),
Sequoia (Redwood City) and
Sacred Heart Prep (Atherton), is a combined 15-3. That's a far better record than that of the WCAL (15-7), EBAL (16-8), BVAL (10-13) and SCVAL De Anza (9-11), which are considered the region's four top leagues.
Marin Catholic quarterback Morgan Mahalak
has secured a scholarship to Oregon.
File photo by Dennis Lee
I'm not sure who I feel worse for.
Marin Catholic's (Kentfield) football team stuck playing in the over-matched Marin County Athletic League or the MCAL opponents who have to face Marin Catholic. It's pretty apparent now, if it wasn't a decade ago, there is no competitive equity here. Following a 56-7 win over Tamalpais on Saturday, the second-ranked Wildcats have won 29 straight in league play by a count of 1,236-183. They have allowed a touchdown or less 22 times, including 10 shutouts.
Like De La Salle in the EBAL and BVAL at one point, and Logan-Union City in the MVAL, it appears to me that at least in football, the Wildcats should opt for freelance status. The best-case scenario would be for Marin Catholic and De La Salle to enter the WCAL. Wouldn't that be fun, but logistically a nightmare and likely won't ever happen. That and the two schools play in the NCS not the CCS, which presents a whole set of other issues.
6. Galileo (San Francisco) (3-1) has emerged as the clear favorite to challenge defending champion
Lincoln (San Francisco) in the Academic Athletic Association/San Francisco Section. The Lions are averaging more than 50 points per game following a 57-30 win over Fort Bragg on Friday.
Ronzel Fox rushed for 279 yards and scored five touchdowns and
Kyle Nelson passed for 220 yards and three more scores in the win.
7. Don't be fooled by Lincoln's 0-3 mark. The Mustangs have by far played the toughest schedule in the AAA. It played 3-0
El Camino (South San Francisco) tough before losing 12-7 on Saturday.
8. Top-ranked De La Salle looked like world beaters again — especially along the offensive and defensive front — in a 42-3 win over a very good Del Oro team. The Spartans piled up 523 yards — 463 on the ground — and 25 first downs. Their backs were barely being touched by the time they reached the secondary. If De La Salle's line plays like that the rest of the season — and frankly there's no reason to assume any different — opponents barely have a chance.
9. A lot has been made about De La Salle's struggles in a 21-14 win over Serra three weeks ago. Perhaps those struggles more had to do with Serra's expertise. After taking a week off, the Padres' response was a school-record 626 total yards in a 49-13 win at Encinal on Friday.
10. I hope college scouts go watch
Menlo (Atherton) quarterback
Jack Heneghan, who threw for 385 yards
and six touchdowns in a 48-7 win over host San Mateo. Menlo is a small school but Heneghan, at 6-4 and 223 pounds, is a big talent.
BAY AREA TOP 25 
Clayton Valley Charter running back Miles Harrison needed just five carries on Friday to score three touchdowns for the 19th-ranked Eagles.
File photo by Dennis Lee
