Half Moon Bay quarterback Gavin Tomberlin will put a few up when the Cougars meet South City on the Coastside.
HMB, Knights possibly Sequoia to battle for PAL-Ocean title
By JOHN MURPHY
August 8, 2016
The PAL-Ocean, with Hillsdale sent packing for the Bay, looks like it may be a two-team race between Half Moon Bay and The King’s Academy, though Sequoia moving down from the Bay could be a wild card.
Half Moon Bay and TKA staged a 50-40 shootout last season, with Half Moon Bay winning. The Cougars went on to finish second in the Ocean and win a section title.
“The PAL is a tough league up and down,” South San Francisco coach Jay Oca said. “There’s talent everywhere and solid coaches as well who will utilize their coaches every game. There are no easy games.”
Sequoia coach Rob Poulos doesn’t know quite what to make of it yet.
“It will be interesting,” he said. “It’s hard to determine. You have a few teams who were CCS champs or right there.”
Here is a look at each team:
Half Moon Bay (11-2) – The Cougars rebounded from a difficult league loss to Hillsdale during which it led by two touchdowns in the second half to win the Central Coast Section Division V title.
Half Moon Bay’s other loss was a 38-28 decision to rival Terra Nova in another game it led by two scores.
Half Moon Bay averaged 39.3 points per game on offense and yielded an average of 16. Blowout victories included Pacific Grove (54-7), South San Francisco (31-0), Monterey (42-7), Los Altos (51-6), El Camino (39-0) and Prospect (57-0) boosted the Cougars’ stats.
The Cougars will miss running back Matt Spigelman who graduated and will play at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. But juniors Jake Quosig and Chase Hofmann could pick up some of the slack at running back and junior quarterback Gavin Tomberlin returns to QB and looks bigger and better than ever. A big target for Tomberlin will be junior wideout Hayden Von Almen.
A player to watch on the line will be junior Ricky Camacho.
The Cougars have a three-game winning streak heading into this season and have a slightly more difficult non-league schedule than last year, meeting host Saratoga, Burlingame and host Capuchino before starting league.
The King’s Academy (8-3) – The Knights will miss junior running back Maurice Washington III who transferred to Oak Grove, but who is ineligible to play this season. There is still plenty of talent, led by sophomore quarterback Michael Johnson, whose father Mike Johnson is the coach. Other standouts are senior two-way lineman Josaiah Mama (6-6, 275) and junior Kilifi Leaatoa (6-1, 215).
In all, TKA has 10 returning starters, though inexperience overall and the Knights’ defensive backfield could be problems. The Knights do have players off an 8-2 junior varsity team to move up and fill some of the holes.
The Knights were explosive last season, as shown by a wild 50-40 loss to host Half Moon Bay. They averaged 46.5 points per game and yielded an average of 32.3. Other losses were to Hillsdale (63-35) and Carmel (50-47).
A non-league schedule of a road game against Gonzales and home games against Branham, San Lorenzo Valley and Castlemont should give TKA a chance for some early success.
South San Francisco (4-6) – The Warriors didn’t suffer any stunning losses last season and beat the teams they were expected to en route to a near-.500 record. Their best win was probably a 23-14 decision against Woodside which started the season 4-0.
Blowout losses to Serra (40-0) and Half Moon Bay (31-0) make the Warriors’ points per game average yielded (22.3) look a bit deceptive. South City fortunately was able to put points on the board, though, averaging 23.9 ppg.
The Warriors look solid at running back with Kolson Pua moving there from quarterback and Jeremiah Lupe joining Pua in the backfield. Tyson Alapati will step in at quarterback and is a “natural” at the position according to coach Jay Oca and should improve the Warriors’ passing game.
A target for Alapati will be receiver Juan Berrero who can also play QB. Opening holes will be Shane Jasen (6-3, 260) and Urian Barazza (5-9) 240.
“We should be competitive,” Oca said. “We’re not as gifted athletically as we were last year, but we’re more in tune as a team. We’ve worked a lot on personal development and character.”
Lupe will play linebacker on defense and David Alapati (cousin of Tyson) will play strong safety. Another player to watch on defense is outside linebacker Carlos Solis, while Pua will switch between linebacker and strong safety.
South City enters the season with a two-game winning streak, has Serra off its schedule and will play a competitive non-league schedule of San Mateo, Capuchino, Aragon and Burlingame.
Sequoia (2-8) – The Cherokees have moved down from the PAL-Bay where they went 0-5 against a difficult schedule. Sequoia had trouble stopping the likes of Sacred Heart Prep and Terra Nova, giving up an average of 36.5 ppg, while scoring an average of 26.2.
Despite losses to SHP, Burlingame, Menlo-Atherton, Palo Alto, Vancouver Collegiate, Terra Nova, Aragon and Woodside, Sequoia did edge Carlmont 24-21 in its final league game and can win a second straight game as a program in its August 26 opener with visiting Santa Cruz. Other non-league games are at Hillsdale, against Rancho Cotate and at Rainier of Oregon.
“We got some good experience last year when we struggled to finish games,” Cherokee coach Rob Poulos said. “Hopefully we’ll get over that hump.”
Senior Nick DeMarco is a strong thrower and will be taking the snaps at quarterback. He will have a capable target in senior receiver Gavin Beene. Matt Casey (6-0, 210) will give Sequoia some experience on the line and will be joined by senior Nate Talakai (6-2, 265) and junior Alex Fogel (6-2, 250) and senior tight end Jackson Hohe will block and catch some passes.
On defense, Beene will be at free safety and Casey at middle linebacker. Senior Des Frazier should make an impact at cornerback and senior Chris Cook will be a mainstay at end. Other players to watch for on defense are senior end Sam Fraley and junior free safety Duncan Stewart.
Menlo (6-5) – The Knights are another team that defeated the teams it was expected to and didn’t really pull off any upsets, though it played well in a narrow loss to Half Moon Bay (22-19).
Other Menlo losses were to Sacred Heart Prep, Hillsdale, The King’s Academy and Scotts Valley. The Knights’ best win was probably against Woodside, 35-20.
Menlo was able to put points on the board in 2015, averaging 24.7 ppg., but also yielded an average of 20.9.
The Knights have plenty of returning talent led by senior quarterback Mackenzie Morehead who completed 152 of 315 passes last season for 2,256 yards and 15 touchdowns. He'll hand off plenty to senior running back Charlie Ferguson who rushed 162 times for 1,087 yards last season and scored 12 touchdowns. Another back to watch could be Robert Lopez.
Menlo has three capable returning receivers in sophomore Aidan Israelski, Evan King and Lopez.
Players to watch on defense are JH Tevis (7.2 tackles per game, 14.5 sacks), Ferguson (9.4 tackles per game), Jack McNally, Hayden Pegley, Jack McNally, Lopez and Israelski.
Menlo has not won a league title since 2006. It should have a full head of steam heading into league after a non-league schedule of games against Lincoln-San Francisco, Mission, Harker and Carlmont.
Woodside (4-6) – The Wildcats started off hot in 2015 with non-league wins against Mountain View, Carlmont, Sequoia and Fremont. But Woodside lost its last six and finished 0-5 in league, including losing its season finale, 59-34 to Menlo-Atherton.
Defense was an issue for the Wildcats as they yielded an average of 31.7 ppg. (while scoring 22.8). High-scoring losses to M-A, The King’s Academy (53-24) and Hillsdale (40-19) did not help those defensive numbers.
There is optimism with star running back Marcellus Chester-Riley back, joined by Joey Mejia in the backfield. At quarterback, senior Owen Allen-Rangel and sophomore Joseph King are vying.
The strength of Woodside could be a huge offensive line that includes guards Alex Roque (6-2, 280) and Christian Ochoa (6-0, 290), tackles PK Ahonima (6-3, 280) and Isaiah Manu (6-1, 250) and center Ta’atia Lesu’i (5-8, 220).
Woodside has not won a league title since 2004 but had some enthusiasm injected last season by the team’s quick start. This season offers a chance at another winning non-league slate with game against Capuchino, Carlmont, Hillsdale and Christopher in the offing.
“They all run around pretty well, too,” Woodside coach Justin Andrews said. “We’re excited at how they look so far.”
On defense, Chester-Riley will be a lockdown corner and Nick Rolle will man the other cornerback spot. Outside linebacker Weston Bourgeois and middle linebacker Chris Brugger will be heavily relied upon. Brugger will step in for star Fione Halaapiapi who tore his ACL before last season, but did not realize it and just had it operated on in April. If he makes it back this season it will not be until the final few regular season games, Andrews said.
Free safety Padros Salama is another player to watch for Woodside.
“We’re small in numbers, but we’ll compete and hopefully make some noise in the Ocean Division,” Andrews said.
