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Published December 13th, 2017
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Campolindo wins NCS Championship, 42-7
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| By Jon Kingdon |
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| Justin Ehrenberger Photos Gint Federas |
It was déjà vu all over again, Groundhog Day and the more things change, the more they stay the same. To all these famous repetitions, we can now add Campolindo's performances in the playoffs. After three dominant wins in their prior playoff games, the No. 1 seeded Campolindo expected a much more competitive game from the second seeded Granada High School. Prior to the game, Granada Head Coach Mike Silva expected a much closer game: "We're very similar teams," he said. Both teams entered the game with identical 9 and 4 records. The similarity ended there.
Granada did win the coin toss to determine who would receive the opening kickoff but their successes after that were few and far between. Dominating from the start, the Cougars won the NCS Championship scoring over 40 points for the fourth consecutive time, defeating Granada 42-7.
Campolindo head coach Kevin Macy relied on his offense to set the tone for the game: "We counted on our passing game. We were able to figure out from their alignments when they would be playing either man or zone defense. We wanted to get up early to take away their running game and force them to throw."
Throwing almost exclusively to Vince Mossotti on the first drive, quarterback John Torchio marched Campolindo down the field for their first score, a 17-yard pass to Mossotti. Torchio would go on to throw four more touchdown passes, one more to Mossotti (20 yards), two to Parker Windatt (16 and 27 yards) and one to Justin Ehrenberger (27 yards). For good measure, Torchio scored as well on a 1-yard run. Torchio's final stats were 20 for 29 for 280 passing yards, and eight runs for 52 yards. Windatt finished with four receptions for 70 yards; Mossotti with nine receptions for 139 yards and two end around runs for 29 yards. Macy was effusive about Mossotti's performance: "He's one of those kids who can elevate himself. He has that high end where he can just keep blossoming."
Campolindo's offense kept the Granada defense off balance gaining a total of 501 yards (286 yards passing and 215 yards rushing) while holding Granada to a total 237 yards.
Defensive coordinator Billy Leavy attributed their success to the fact that "our defense was able to adjust to their alignments. It was the best game for our defense combined with our offense."
There was only one breakdown by the Campolindo defense, allowing a 50-yard touchdown run by Granada's Tommy Reaves to bring the score to 21-7.
Macy pointed to the Acalanes game for the improvement in the team's defense: "We changed some things after the loss to Acalanes. We played with more speed tonight."
With five turnovers and gang tackling on nearly every play, Campolindo prevented Granada from crossing midfield until there was 7:33 left in the second quarter. Granada fumbled on the next play which Cougars linebacker Grant Larsen recovered. Charlie Craig and Torchio also recovered fumbles. Larsen and Ian Concepcion each had an interception.
Backup quarterback, Grant Harper also got more playoff experience, playing the entire fourth quarter, going 1 for 1 for 6 yards. Harper marched the team down to the Granada 1 yard line with just over two minutes to go in the game. Rather than scoring again, Macy had Harper take a knee two times and allowed the clock to run out rather than score again.
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| Vincent Mossotti |
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA