Multiple Bay Area sports journalists predicted Monte Vista would prevail over Campo before their matchup on September 22. But with a 38-14 blowout, the Cougars were able to defy their skeptics and get their second win of the season.

The Cougars had just come off a bye week that followed their tie against Windsor. Earlier in the season, they had won the miraculous double-overtime opener against Vanden, but they hadn’t yet found the blueprint to success for the season.

“We’ve been searching for the formula all year; some type of balance between the offense and the defense,” said Head Football Coach Kevin Macy. “The goals for the defense were to try to get off the field early to help the offense get field position. The goal for the offense was to sustain some drives to keep our defense off the field.”

Within minutes, this strategy proved successful. On the sixth play of the game, junior safety Luke Bonardi picked up a fumble off of a muffed exchange on a Monte Vista hand-off. Executing the game plan exactly how Macy imagined, the defense got off the field in less than 3 minutes and gave senior quarterback Isaiah Ortiz and the Cougar’s offense the ball at the Mustang’s 44-yard line.

Unfortunately for Campo, their drive–which started in opponent territory– came to an end when they couldn’t convert on 4th down.

That landed the ball back in the hands of the Mustangs, who marched down the field and scored the first points of the game on a 48-yard touchdown.

After Monte Vista scored, Campo came back onto the field with something to prove. It only took them about 2 minutes to drive down the field and tie the game with a receiving touchdown from junior wide receiver Joe Revelos, his second TD of the season.

After the Cougars found their groove, the game started to turn in their favor. Only Campo scored for the rest of the half, with senior kicker Egor Dobrolyubov nailing a 27-yard field goal and Isaiah Ortiz running a quarterback sneak from the 1-yard line to put the Cougars up by 10 points going into halftime.

Back in the locker room, Coach Macy told the team to wipe their minds clean of their first half success. He told them: “Many first halves are forgotten in history if you don’t have a good second half.” This pep talk worked.

The Cougars came out of the locker room fired up and piled on another 21 points in the second half. The main contributors were Ortiz and Bonardi. Ortiz, who finished the game with a career-best 250 passing yards and 4 total touchdowns, credited his performance to a good week of practice and extra relaxation from the bye week. Coach Macy said Ortiz’s performance earned him the game ball. “That means a lot because Coach Macy is a legend,” Ortiz said in response to the honor.

Bonardi’s contribution was on the defensive side of the ball. He helped the Cougars defense only allow one more Monte Vista touchdown in the second half. He also had 4 total turnovers, which helped propel the Cougars to victory. “I just went one-hundred percent every play,” said Bonardi.

This outstanding performance earned Bonardi West Coast Prep’s “Men’s Athlete of the Week.” The Cougars hope to keep that momentum up for the rest of the season, especially against rivals Miramonte and Acalanes who are the Cougars last 2 opponents of the regular season.