The 2022-23 high school football season is younger than the Pop Warner kids who entertained the crowd at halftime of Friday’s Half Moon Bay High School victory over San Mateo. Many of the pieces have changed on Cougar head varsity football coach Keith Holden’s chessboard, but the game remains largely the same: hard-nosed, physical football that moves the line of scrimmage without relying on flash or fanfare.
Two games in, Holden has few complaints with a team that is making opponents look like so many pawns pitted against his more versatile side.
On Friday, the Cougars bruised the visiting San Mateo Bearcats en route to a 36-0 shutout. Combined with a 35-9 win at Leland in the opener, the Cougars are 2-0 and increasingly confident and formidable.
After a slow start, marred by early fumbles on both sides, the Cougars won the game in the second quarter. They scored three times in three different ways.
The first touchdown culminated a drive of brother-to-brother connections. Quarterback Liam Harrington looked over the middle to find Ryan Harrington had worked his way past the defense for a 37-yard scoring pass. Then they scored on a halfback pass that went from Liam Harrington to Owen Wilson to Kai Zanette. And in the final seconds of the half, P.J. Modena bulled his way in on second and inches from the San Mateo goal.
By then it was 22-0 and clear the Bearcats, who also lean on the run, faced a nearly impossible uphill battle.
“Give them credit because they have some pretty good athletes and big kids who run the ball hard,” said Holden, who is in the midst of his 20th season coaching Cougar football.
“Hard” is an understatement. Daniel Feletoa did the bulk of the power running, but at times the Bearcats turned to junior Nalesoni Fakava, who, at 5-10, 250 pounds, was built like the big trucks turning into Ox Mountain Landfill on the drive over from San Mateo.
“We run the same offense as them, so we know it takes discipline to stop it,” Holden said.
The second half was more of the same and functionally a formality. The Cougars scored next on the second play of the fourth quarter to make it 29-0, and again on a short pass to Harrison Tobias.
The Cougar defense is stout. It was plus 3 in turnovers on the night, with notable hits by P.J. Modena and an interception by Dio Lucido.
A packed home field crowd left happy on a perfect coastal night for football.
“Overall, you pitch a shutout against a team that runs the ball well and we’re pretty happy,” Holden said. ▪
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