On Saturday, Oct. 28, families packed the bleachers of the Don Bordenave field to watch the showdown between the SCHS Bruins and the El Camino Colts. Encouraged by families and friends, following their senior day celebration, the SCHS varsity football team steamrolled the Colts in a 42-0 victory.
As kickoff began, the Bruins and the Colts were stuck around midfield, fighting for territorial gains back and forth. The Bruins advanced when running back senior Matthew Nguyen ran a punt back to the 40-yard line. Unfortunately, this effort was countered by the referees, who threw a flag on the play and placed the Bruins on the 10-yard line.
The Colts densive line forced the Bruins to punt on the 4th down, shifting back to the SCHS 35-yard line. The Colts failed to push through the Bruins’ defense for quite some time, allowing SCHS’ offensive team to swap in and stop the stalemate.
The Bruins secured gains as quarterback senior Matthew Conklin threw a long pass to wide receiver senior Jeremiah Karongo, putting them squarely on the 15-yard line. El Camino held onto the defensive, but it was not enough to prevent Santa Clara from breaking their formations. Much to the cheer and music from the SCHS marching band, Nguyen scored a touchdown for the Bruins, which was backed up by junior Hamzah Punjsheri’s extra point.
For the rest of the first quarter, the Colts struggled to break out of midfield, putting the Bruins 7-0. As the second quarter began, however, El Camino made a bold but unsuccessful move, gaining some territory after a flag was called on the Bruins. The Colts called for a timeout to strategize their next moves while the Bruins used the opportunity to refresh.
A shift in strategy saw the Colts getting more aggressive, with one of their players nearly fumbling the ball. On a live-stream broadcast, junior Jaret Gutierrez gave his thoughts on the play.
“That’s what you call Butterfingers, folks, as we watched him play Hot Potato with the football,” Gutierrez said.
El Camino’s Jaden Ledesma attempted a pass rush during a play that was successfully caught in the end zone by another Colts player. The pass, however, was illegal and caught by the referees. Explaining the move, commentator junior Logan Van Pelt described why it was against the rules.
“That pass was not in the right position, that was of course, past the chains, [making] that an illegal pass,” Van Pelt said.
Aggressive long passes by the Colts put the Bruins on the defensive, doing their best to stop El Camino’s advance. As the ball was turned over to SCHS, Nguyen rushed through the Colts defense for a first down, much to El Camino’s resistant efforts.
Numerous flags flew as the Bruins drew penalties, forcing territorial losses. At one point, Conklin threw a long pass to Karongo, completing the pass in what seemed to be a touchdown. Much to the Bruins’ dismay, referees did not count it as such, penalizing the team for an illegal man downfield.
Santa Clara shrugged this call off, though, with Nguyen negating most of the losses with his run into the Colts’ red zone. It only took a few more efforts for Conklin to gain an effortless touchdown. Combined with that extra point, the Bruins were 14-0 in the second quarter.
Both the Bruins and the Colts battled to earn more points through the rest of the quarter, with wide receiver sophomore Kyree Brown at one point slamming a Colts player on the ground to secure a long yard gain.
At halftime, SCHS’ Spirit Squad performed a stunning show, with the marching band showcasing this year’s performance, “Atlantis.”
As the third quarter was in swing, running back sophomore Joseph Manueli threw a successful pass to tight end senior Mitchell Pacheco, which was again negated by a referees’ flag, drawing boos from the crowd.
The Bruins again aggressively pushed against the Colts to score another touchdown. As the Colts gained possession of the ball, the defense was strong enough to bring the ball back into Santa Clara’s favor, which began their offensive assault. Repeating old strategies, Conklin threw a long pass to Karongo, catching it at the corner of the end zone for his ninth touchdown of the season, putting the Bruins at 27-0.
For the Colts, it was an uphill battle to break past the stalwart Bruin line. As the Bruins gained possession of the ball, Conklin passed the ball to Brown, who ran past the El Camino defensive line for yet another touchdown.
Rubbing salt into the wound, Karongo caught a pass made by Conklin, giving him his double digits for the season and putting the team 35-0 in the match.
The Colts made increasingly risky moves to try and mitigate the loss, only to be shot down by Santa Clara numerous times.
Now on the offensive, Santa Clara placed pressure against El Camino, resulting in Conklin sustaining and recovering an injury. Emboldened by their team member’s sacrifice, tight end senior Alex Lopez snuck through the Colts’ defensive line, scoring another Bruin touchdown.
As El Camino failed to score points, the Bruins’ offense sealed their victory. At one point, Pacheco tanked through the defense, stopping short of the end zone as the Colts staunchly tried to stop his advance.
No amount of effort was able to secure El Camino a single point as Santa Clara ran down the clock, resulting in a 42-0 blowout over the Colts and a landslide victory for the Bruins. Senior Matthew Nguyen runs the ball against El Camino on October 28, 2023”