The football team defeated Acalanes 48-13 to finish their regular season undefeated and earn the Diablo Foothill League title. The game was played at Bob Wilson Stadium on November 7 .
In the past 4 seasons, Campolindo has churned out a 39-1 regular season record. According to head coach Kevin Macy, no team in the school’s history has done this before. “We have had a lot of special years in the past. Four seasons like this has never happened in school history,” he said.
In additional to beating up on the Dons, the Cougars unveiled new team uniforms on Friday. Junior varsity played in gray jerseys while varsity wore red.
According to Macy, “the school got into doing red outs the past couple of years, and we thought that we would join in with the rest of the school’s spirit. We had to order these [jerseys] back in February. The kids voted for the last game of the season against Acalanes,” he said.
Senior running back Nick Fadelli enjoyed wearing the jerseys. “It is awesome. I love the feel of [the jerseys]. They are great. They are like wearing college level jerseys,” he said.
Campolindo led 19-13 going into the 2nd half.
Acalanes started with the ball in the 2nd half. However, they was forced to punt. The Cougars would go on to score 29 unanswered points.
“The 3 and out to start the 2nd half was huge, because we were struggling. The 3 and out by the defense and scoring right away gave us a little breathing room that we have not had all night,” Macy said.
Acalanes head coach Mike Ivankovich said they had difficulty matching Campolindo’s scoring in the 2nd half. “We played great in the 1st half. We did not get first downs in the 2nd half. They [Campolindo] started to score, and we did not match them. The game started to get away from us,” he said.
With 3:06 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Fadelli ran for a 91 yard touchdown. Fadelli said, “I actually was cramping after I made a couple of cuts, but once I broke through the line, I knew I had it.”
Macy believed that a strong running game was a game changer. “We have never had a kid like Fadelli. Combine him with a kid like Remotto, we have never had that type of spark in the backfield before. We will not see a kid like Fadelli for a long time,” he said.
Down 13-41 at the end of the 3rd quarter, Ivankovich admitted his team was forced to pass more. “We ran the ball well in the 1st half. Once we were down by a couple of touchdowns, we had to abandon it [the running game]. We played tough offensively. We had to throw the ball, and were were playing into the strength of Campolindo’s defense,” he said.
Nevertheless, Ivankovich believed that Acalanes showed great effort. “This is a great team and they do not give up. You cannot control the outcome, but you can control your effort and attitude. We did a good job of that,” he said.
Looking ahead to the playoffs, Macy expects his team’s fate will depend on the specific match ups at each position. “Everything comes down to match-ups. We are still a small team, and Acalanes came out and tried to wear us down. We can improve on that. We have had a good year, but our defensive limitations will determine how far we will go,” he said.
