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ATHERTON — A few yards shy of the red zone, Sacred Heart Prep faced a fourth down in quest of the go-ahead touchdown after recovering an onside kick Friday night on the road.
Menlo-Atherton coach Steve Papin, his mind racing with all the possible outcomes, stopped play with 48.5 seconds left to realign the defense.
“We didn’t want to be caught with our pants down,” he said. “So we called a timeout just to get everybody back on the same page.”
Opting for man-to-man coverage, M-A strong safety Thomas Taufui was left on an island and forced an incompletion on a pass that bounced precariously short of the first-down marker to secure a 26-20 victory over SHP.
“He’s a guy that we trust,” Papin said of his 5-foot-8, 170-pound sophomore.
“We just had to shut them down,” Taufui said. “I tried to stay on him the whole time and keep him away from making the first down or the catch.”
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Taufui pulled off double duty while accumulating a game-high 141 yards on 17 carries, including a touchdown from 3 yards out with 12.6 seconds left in the first quarter to make the score 6-0.
“In a ball game like tonight, when our offensive line was just playing, we rode him all the way into the end zone,” Papin said. “He kept wanting the ball and we kept giving it to him.”
With virtually every run up the middle, much of the credit went to the guys in the trenches.
“A lot, OP — over powered,” Taufui said.
A year ago, this Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division showdown determined the title. It could be a case of déjà vu for M-A (4-3, 2-0 Bay).
“We knew going in it was going to be a hard-fought game, championship is on the line kind of here” Papin said. “Luckily our guys played to the end.”
The Bears went into the locker room up 13-0 on the strength of a 64-yard TD pass to wide receiver Justin Anderson, who took a short toss from quarterback Matt MacLeod to pay dirt with 1:26 left in the second quarter.
“Credit to Matt, that was a good ball,” Anderson said. “The linebacker blitzed, he saw me fast, got it to me, broke a tackle and just made a play.”
SHP (5-2, 2-1), which struggled to move the ball in the first half, dominated time of possession after intermission.
The Gators took the opening kickoff of the third quarter and marched 74 yards on 10 plays, culminating with a 7-yard TD pass to tight end J.P. Frimel (six catches for 55 yards).
“I’m just proud of our guys and how they competed to the end,” SHP coach Mark Grieb said.
Every time SHP found the end zone, M-A answered right away.
Tough sledding from Taufui twice moved the ball into the red zone, which set up a pair of touchdown throws by MacLeod, who finished 7 of 10 for 139 yards with three TDs and no turnovers.
“That’s Matty Ice,” Papin said. “That’s what he’s been doing for the last two years.”
Four-star recruit Troy Franklin, who had five catches for 54 yards, hauled in a 9-yard fade to make it 19-7 only 74 seconds after SHP got on the board.
The Gators got back within one score after a 14-play drive that ate up over seven minutes off the clock and featured only one pass. The finishing touch? A 5-yard TD run by Tatafu Mahoni with 7:31 left in the game.
Franklin promptly ripped off a 55-yard kickoff return that after five runs by Taufui led to a 20-yard TD catch by sophomore Jalen Moss on another fade.
SHP didn’t miss a beat as 49 seconds later, on a pump-and-go from quarterback Teddy Purcell, wide receiver Wilson Weisel got behind the secondary for a 66-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 26-20 with 5:01 remaining.
Purcell finished 14 of 22 for 166 yards, with no turnovers and a couple of crucial scrambles.
“He’s got guts, he’s got composure and then he knows when to try to make a play,” Grieb said. “He’s elusive, he’s shifty and it’s tough to get a handle on him, so I thought he did a nice job under duress tonight.”
In search of an edge, SHP recovered the ensuing onside kick just past midfield.
“We’ve been practicing it all year and, to be honest, we wanted to do it the time before,” Grieb said. “But Ronan (Donnelly) didn’t hear the call, so he ended up kicking it deep and we got away with one because the kid could’ve taken that one to the house.”
The Gators got within 4 yards of the red zone before M-A forced a turnover on downs.
“We just had to stay on our toes, just focus and pull it out together,” Anderson said.
