Football Preview: Half Moon Bay Cougars vs. San Mateo Bearcats
A feisty cat fight will be fought when Cougars takes on the San Mateo Bearcats at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Half Moon Bay is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering Sequoia just ended the team's seven-game winning streak dating back to last season on Friday. They and the Ravens were almost perfectly matched up, but they suffered a 21-20 loss. The game marked the Cougars' lowest-scoring matchup so far this season.
Meanwhile, San Mateo entered their tilt with Terra Nova on Friday with four consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with five. They blew past the Tigers 27-7.
It was another big night for Emmanuel J Fitzgerald, who rushed for 167 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 9.3 yards per carry. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 113 rushing yards dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Cameron Palma, who rushed for 68 yards.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: San Mateo was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 327 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 155 rushing yards in 17 consecutive matches dating back to last season.
San Mateo didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Hamilton Pitney.
Having lost for the first time this season, Half Moon Bay fell to 6-1. As for San Mateo, they pushed their record up to 6-1 with the win, which was their third straight on the road.
Half Moon Bay suffered a grim 34-8 defeat to San Mateo in their previous matchup back in August of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of J Fitzgerald, who rushed for 117 yards and four touchdowns on only 15 carries. Now that Half Moon Bay knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
