WOODSIDE — A magical season came to an end Friday for Woodside when San Mateo sophomore TJ Johnson took a pitch on a reverse and scored on an 8-yard run in overtime to give the No.8 seed Bearcats a 20-13 upset win in the Central Coast Section Division III quarterfinals.
Woodside went into the game 10-0 and dominating every team it had played, averaging 41.8 points per game. San Mateo (8-3) advances to play at No. 4 Live Oak in the semifinals.
“I told the kids it’s hard going 10-0, a lot of pressure,” San Mateo coach Jeff Scheller said. “That’s a really good team. But we’re battle tested, we’ve gone through adversity. I told the seniors they were only guaranteed one game. But they didn’t want to quit and we don’t want to stop coaching.”
This one had the look of a game from a previous era of football, Woodside’s single wing against San Mateo’s triple option. Smash mouth, physical football. Plenty of hard hits on both sides. The forward pass not exactly shunned, but resorted to sparingly.
San Mateo quarterback Lukas Fitzgerald threw only three passes, completing two for 21 yards. But he carried 22 times for 113 yards. Woodside’s Charlie Dalrymple was a bit more inclined to put the ball in the air, completing 5 of 13 for 108 yards. San Mateo ran the ball 51 times for 247 yards, Woodside 33 times for 162 yards.
A very evenly-matched contest. The score was 7-7 at halftime and 13-13 at the end of regulation. Woodside had 270 yards of total offense, San Mateo 268.
With two seconds left in the fourth quarter Woodside had a chance to win it. Manuel Navarro lined up for a 26-yard field goal. He’d already made two second-half field goals and had demonstrated a powerful leg, booting kickoffs into the end zone. His second field goal had brought the Wildcats even at 13-13. But the snap was low on the potential game-winner. It took the holder an extra second or two to put the ball down and Navarro’s kick was no good, sending the game to overtime.
“Even with the mishandled snap I thought the way we got it off, from my angle I thought it went in,” Woodside coach Justin Andrews said. “The guys with a better view than me said it didn’t, so that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
San Mateo had the ball first in overtime and on second down from the 8, Johnson, a transfer from Archbishop Riordan who became eligible in the middle of the season, scored to put San Mateo on top.
“He’s got a unique skill set,” Scheller said. “When it was time to call it the guys executed.”
“I got my chance to score and took it,” Johnson said. “My first varsity touchdown.”
Nice time for that first TD.
On Woodside’s possession three runs netted four yards and on fourth down from the 6 a pass into the end zone was incomplete.
“We knew going in that we had a tough job offensively,” Andrews said. “On film their defensive line and linebackers were real stout. They were just dialed in. We couldn’t quite get our rhythm with the run game. Hats off to San Mateo, they played an exceptional game.”
San Mateo scored on its opening possession on a 14-yard run by slotback Tyce Copus. Woodside drew even when Daniel Torres scored on a 10-yard run on the second play of the second quarter.
The Bearcats took the second-half kickoff and went 80 yards in 11 plays with Yianni Fitzgerald scoring on a 27-yard run up the middle. Woodside blocked the PAT, leaving the score at 13-7.
Navarro’s 29-yard field goal brought the Wildcats within 13-10 and his 36-yarder tied it with 6:07 left.
But in the end it was San Mateo celebrating.
“San Mateo hadn’t done this in a lot of years so it was nice to break the curse,” Yianni Fitzgerald said. “We knew we had more in us so it’s exciting to see how far we can go.”
It was a crushing, emotional loss for Woodside. Andrews hugged each one of his players after the postgame huddle broke up.
“I just kind of reminded them, this wasn’t the result we wanted but nothing can take away what they’ve been able to accomplish, bringing this school and this program to heights it hasn’t seen since 2000-whatever it was,” Andrews said. “This is going to hurt and sting but they shouldn’t hang their heads for too long. They have a lot to be really proud of.”
