Woodside overcomes halftime deficit, beats HMB to stay unbeaten

WOODSIDE — With an 18-play opening touchdown drive, Half Moon Bay sent a message to undefeated Woodside: Game on.

But Woodside shifted the momentum in the second half and emerged with a 28-14 comeback victory Friday to stay atop the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division standings.

It turned out that Half Moon Bay’s 9-minute 80-yard touchdown drive was the peak for the Cougar offense, which managed 92 yards the rest of the game.

At 7-0 (and 2-0 in the PAL Ocean), Woodside continues its best start since 2004, when the Wildcats went 13-0 to win the Central Coast Section Medium Schools title with Julian Edelman at quarterback.

The Wildcats are averaging 42 points a game, but it was the defense that kept them in the game until the offense found its groove and wore out Half Moon Bay (4-3, 1-2) down the stretch with 21 unanswered second-half points.

“When you’ve got a defense you can lean on, it definitely buys you a little bit more time to figure things out,” said Woodside coach Justin Andrews, a former Oregon linebacker and defensive end.

During a stretch of three touchdowns on three consecutive second-half possessions, Woodside tied the game when Charlie Dalrymple zipped a laser to Kolby Nelson for 24 yards. And the Wildcats took a 21-14 lead when tight end Juan Servin scored on a 1-yard pass from J.J. Lange with 1:14 left in the third quarter.

The Drive, as Half Moon Bay could refer to its first possession, was ushered along by a 21-yard pass from quarterback/punter Paxton Holden to Carlos Sanchez on a fake punt deep in its own territory. It ended with a seven-yard pass from Holden to Chester Collins for a score.

Half Moon Bay regained the lead when the third of Woodside’s three lost first-half fumbles ended up in the arms of the Cougars’ Joedoln Flores in the end zone for a 14-7 second-quarter advantage.

Despite trailing at halftime, Woodside made no defensive adjustments.

“Look, you’re doing everything that you’ve been coached to do,” Woodside defensive coordinator Joshua Bowie told his players. “You’re doing it exactly the way we want you to.”

Sure enough, the Wildcat defense held Half Moon Bay without a first down on its first three possessions of the second half. The Cougars managed only two first downs in the second half, both late in the game.

“We knew that if we could get the ball in our offense’s hands, we could get another shot at this,” said cornerback/receiver Daniel Torres.

Alex Valencia, playing for injured Evan Frampton, rushed for 104 yards on 21 carries. And Torres, averaging 131 all-purpose yards per game, accounted for 78 rushing and receiving.

“We’ve got a bunch of kids who love football, who love each other,” Bowie said. “They study the game and they have really good questions during practice. One of the best things that happens is the kids start recognizing and making adjustments on their own, and that’s when the magic happens.”