San Mateo football team runs over Oakland

The scoreboard remained at zero until late in the second half when the Bearcats fianally broke through. They then took control early in the third quarter with two quick scores and then cruised home to a 42-0 win over the visting Wildcats Thursday night to improve to 4-0 on the season.

“It was kind of weird,” Scheller said, noting the strange Thursday night start against a team the Bearcats knew nothing about.

“In the first quarter, we didn’t (execute).”

Execution comes in a variety of ways. San Mateo executed well on both their drives, but once they got inside the 20, both drives stalled.

The Bearcats took the opening kickoff and starting from their own 41, used 11 plays to methodically drive to the 20, only to turn the ball over on downs.

The San Mateo defense stopped Oakland on down on its first drive and took over at the Wildcats’ 23-yard line.

An easy score, right? Again, the Bearcats methodically moved the ball, eventually earning a first down at the 1-yard line.

But a false start penalty, followed by a fumbled pitch and the Bearcats, again, came up empty, turning the ball over on down again.

Oakland took over and Scheller’s worst nightmare started to unfold. The Wildcats started moving the ball, using a quick, short passing attack to move from the their own 9 out to the 30.

But the Bearcats defense stiffened and forced a punt. Again, San Mateo turned the ball over on downs insde the Oakland 35 and there was some grumbling on the San Mateo sideline.

“Give (Oakland) credit,” Scheller said. “They’re fast. They’re physical.”

Four plays later, the Bearcats were breathing a sigh of relief. San Mateo defensive lineman Titi Tungavaka recovered an Oakland fumble at the Wildcats’ 27-yard line and San Mateo finally cashed in its opportunity, going 27 yards on five plays, with quarterback Giancarlo Selvitella bulling his way into the end zone from 2 yards out to finally give the Bearcats the lead, 7-0 with just under two minutes to play in the first half.

That seemed to loosen up the Bearcats, who went on to score three more touchdowns over the next 17 plays. Estevan Vargas intercepted a pass for San Mateo on Oakland’s next possession, setting up a 30-yard scoring strike from Selvitella to a wide open Noah Rodriguez to give the Bearcats a 14-0 lead at halftime.

Oakland received the second-half kickoff and two plays later, San Mateo had a 21-0 lead. On the second play from scrimmage in the third quarter, the Bearcats knocked the ball loose from an Oakland receiver and Rodriguez was Johnny On The Spot, scooping up the loose ball and scooting 30 yards for the scoop and score.

Connor Moriarty came up with the Bearcats’ third turnover on the next play from scrimmage, intercepting a pass and returning it to the Oakland 20.

On the next play, Torryn Tulloch took a pitch left and weaved his way 20 yards to put the Bearcats up 28-0 with 10:08 left in the third quarter.

Oakland responded with its best drive of the game as their quarterback used his arm and legs to help drive the Wildcats from their own 33 to the San Mateo 3-yard line.

But the drive was thwarted when Keali’i Keahi came up with an interception in the end zone to keep the Wildcats off the scoreboard.

Taking over at their own 20, the Bearcats proceeded to drive 80 yards on nine plays, with Selvitella scoring his second touchdown of the night with a 3-yard run.

Villiami Zepeda capped the scoring for San Mateo with a 1-yard plunge with just under four minutes to play.

San Mateo gained 281 yards of offense, with 233 coming on the ground. Tevita Kioa led the way, rushing for a game-high 84 yards on 18 carries. The Bearcats defense held Oakland to just 122 yards of offense.

“They definitely feel they can play in any game,” Scheller said of his team. “They do have a lot of confidence.”