SAN MATEO — Serra and Folsom gave everything they had on the field on Saturday in San Mateo.
The Padres and Bulldogs have met in each of the last four seasons and know each other well. But before Saturday’s game, Serra had won three matchups in a row by a total of 13 points – the most recent one coming by a single point last season.
It took all 48 minutes, but Folsom finally evened the score. And “score” was the name of the game, as the two NorCal rivals combined for nearly 100 points in an epic back-and-forth slugfest that resulted in a 56-42 Folsom win.
“These are tough games to coach, tough games to prepare for,” Folsom coach Paul Doherty said. “It’s really good for our team.”
For Folsom (2-0), it was a good feeling to break a streak that seemed to have a psychological hold on the program. Even last season, when Serra had a down year, the Padres still traveled to Folsom and beat the Bulldogs 22-21.
There wouldn’t be any stopping Folsom’s awesome offense. Five-star quarterback and BYU commit Ryder Lyons certainly did his part, passing for four touchdowns and running for three.
Lyons did it all while fending off a nagging limp in 90-plus-degree heat and refusing to come out of the game, even forcing his coach to call a timeout to keep him in.
“He’s legit hurt,” Doherty said of Lyons. “He got banged up last week, he got banged up again today, and I tried to take him out. He wouldn’t come out, so I called a timeout.”
Serra (0-1) also brought its offense to the field. A team that at times struggled to score last season found success running the ball, as Jeovanni Henley ran for two touchdowns.
But the Padres also found some success through the air. New starting quarterback Caleb Bandel threw touchdown passes to Charles Walsh and Iziah Singleton.
Special teams came up big as well. Kicker Saul Marks, a preseason all-Bay Area News Group honoree, hit field goals of 42 and 53 yards, the latter of which tied the game 42-42 with just over two minutes to go.
“Going into this game, I had no idea what to expect,” Serra coach Patrick Walsh said. “No idea. Basically 11 new starters on offense and a very, very young defense out there. But now I know a lot more about us.”
The defenses also got in on the scoring party. In the third quarter, Henley had a crucial pick-six, returning an interception of Lyons about 30 yards to the end zone to bring Serra within 35-32.
Then late in the fourth, it was EJ Coleman who sealed the game for Folsom. The junior linebacker intercepted Bandel’s pass over the middle with less than two minutes remaining, then ran it back 45 yards for the game-sealing TD that put Folsom up 56-42.
Patrick Walsh would have preferred that Serra extend its streak to four games over the Bulldogs. But the Padres learned a lot from testing themselves against one of the best teams in the state that they will be able to apply the rest of the season.
Those lessons will need to be learned quickly. De La Salle comes to town next week.
“We lost the game, but we’re going to take it more as we learned the game,” coach Walsh said. “We learned a lot about ourselves. We learned a lot about our culture. People choose to come to a school like this to play in a game like that. There’s a spirit around here that is a strong culture, and I think you guys saw that today.”
