On Saturday, September 10, COS Football lost in their home opener against a talented San Mateo Bulldogs team with a score of 45-21. While not the result that anyone at COS desired, it showed a lot of improvement over the last time that the Giants faced off against the Bulldogs when COS didn’t even score in a 41-0 blowout.

As far as scoring goes, the game opened with a touchdown on a three-yard run from Ezra Moleni, putting the Bulldogs up 7-0 with 09:49 left to play in the first. However, the scoring wasn’t even close to being done, with San Mateo returning a 40-yard interception for a touchdown on the very next drive, putting them down 14-0.

“It’s tough to play winning football being down like that” Head Coach Travis Burkett said after the game, and continued with, “I told the guys that we have a transference issue in terms of what we say and what it’s looking like – which is a head coaching issue – because we want to be a start fast team and we’re not, and we have to fix that,” Burkett said.

Unfortunately, the slow start continued for the Giants when San Mateo scored with just four seconds left in the first quarter on a 33-yard run. This buzzer-beater touchdown put the dogs up 21-0 at the end of the first quarter, which is one of the largest deficits I have seen in my time watching junior college football.

In saying that, I’d like to say that every new game comes with a new and unique challenge for any football team, and this time, it was a fast and large early deficit that COS had to try and crawl back from.

It would be a tall task to see any team erase that kind of lead, especially with consistent offensive pressure put upon them like they had in the second quarter. Unfortunately, the lead would stay far out of reach for the time being near the start of the next quarter.

The scoring in the second started with a soul-crushing fumble recovery into the hands of the Bulldogs within the first 10 seconds, which brought their lead up to 28-0. After a field goal was kicked on the Bulldog’s next drive, the score would then reach 31-0 with 11 minutes to play.

While some would consider taking a fumble recovery 10 yards into the endzone followed by a field goal to be a moral defeat, the Giants held their own until there were just 33 seconds left in the quarter and responded with a touchdown of their own from a three-yard shove into the end zone from AJ Dixson. The Giants’ defense proceeded to hold the line for the entirety of the third quarter before the COS offense broke through with another one-yard run taken to the house.

The score, which was once 31-0, was now 31-15 at the end of the third. According to Burkett, the coaching near this part of the game was a key factor in the turnaround in offensive production as well as defensive protection.

“The coaches did their job. We came out and were stout in the third quarter, and finished strong. We did some positive things in three-phase football (offense, defense, special teams), and I’m really proud of the job that the coaches did,” Burkett said.

With the score remaining the same into the start of the fourth, the next time numbers would be put onto the scoreboard was with 13 minutes to play in the final quarter, where San Mateo scored a touchdown off a six-yard pass, putting their lead up to 38-15.

Three minutes later, the Sequoias answered back with their final touchdown of the game and put the score at 38-21. With only five minutes left to go though, San Mateo would land the killing blow on a 62-yard pass down the field to score the final touchdown of the game and set the final score at 45-21.

Even though this game didn’t pan well for the home team, there were positives to take into the next game. As with every loss comes a victory in learning something new about your opponent, making you better prepared for tougher challenges.

Some of those things, as Coach Burkett pointed out, was that “Our guys played strong the whole day. Our offense continued to run the ball, and protect the quarterback, I think we saw the punt and kick coverage and I thought that was a really big play for us when they put the hands unit out, and we kicked it deep.”

Come and watch the Giants at their next home game against Shasta on September 24, at 11 a.m., where they will try and put their season record back upright and put themselves higher in the conference rankings.

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