Football Outmatched in Regular Season Final

Varsity football suffered a 15-50 loss against the Clayton Valley Ugly Eagles on November 4, ending an undefeated league run that dates back to 2010.  As a result, the Cougars finished the 2016 season at 4-1 in their Diablo Athletic League division.

According to head coach Kevin Macy, the lopsided loss was the result of a recent league realignment that groups schools of disparate sizes.  Macy is not happy about it.

“[Clayton Valley is] just a Division 1 power school with a charter, which allows them to recruit, and they just really have no business being in a league with small, Division 3 schools,” said  Macy. “It was just a terrible league that was set up and they did this to all the kids in the Acalanes Union schools, just powered over all of ’em.”

Macy and his staff was also disturbed by the fact that Clayton Valley kept its starters in the whole game, even though the Eagles held a comfortable lead. “They had a mission to try to run up a score, which seemed meaningless and just isn’t a healthy image for the sport, especially at a high school level,” said Macy. “It was just not a healthy thing for high school football, for kids to have to live through that.”

Campolindo finally scored in the 2nd quarter when junior John Torchio received a 12-yard pass from senior quarterback Jacob Westphal. “Jacob Westphal had an incredible night. He was under pressure all night; they were blitzing him and knocking him down, but he stood in there and made a lot of good throws,” said Macy.

Senior Matthew Ringquist scored the Cougar’s 2nd touchdown in the final quarter, with just a few minutes left to play.

In spite of the loss, Macy is pleased that his squad managed to come away relatively healthy and expects that they will rebound to be successful against their playoff opponents.

“People gave us credit for playing tough against a physically superior team defensively, but offensively it was clear that we couldn’t run the ball- we don’t have a running back, and our line just could’t match up against their kids,” said Macy. “Our goal was to make sure we got out of that game healthy, because we were just really down this year and couldn’t afford any more injuries. There was a concussion, a twisted ankle- a lot of minor things- but nothing that says all the kids can’t come back in a couple weeks when we have our first [postseason] game.”