On Friday, Oct. 17, the SCHS Bruins played their homecoming football game against the South San Francisco High School Warriors. The game kept fans on their feet, as the Bruins beat the Warriors in overtime, with a final score of 28-27.
Before the varsity game started, the homecoming floats made one last lap around the track, with seniors winning first place for theirs. The homecoming court also took the field. Donovan Ferreira and Shenoa Gonzalez Martinez were crowned king and queen.
With homecoming spirit abuzz, the football team went into their game aiming to win. The Bruins and the Warriors, however, kept trading touchdowns. During the first quarter, South San Francisco scored a touchdown but was not able to score the extra point. SCHS responded with a touchdown of its own. Senior quarterback Damian Lopez was able to connect with his wide receiver, senior Nolan Gallo, and the Bruins ended the quarter with a 7-6 lead.
Gallo explained the tactics behind their play.
“Our main strategy was a little different from what we’ve been doing for the past week, which we’ve been doing a lot of passing,” Gallo said. “Our goal in this game was to run the ball at first, so that they try to stop the run, which allows us to create opportunities for longer passes.”
The second quarter was not much different from the first, with South San Francisco scoring another touchdown and successfully getting the two-point conversion. Just like the first quarter, SCHS bounced back with a 24-yard pass to Gallo, who scored a 50-yard touchdown.
The comeback drove the offense to continue persisting. Junior wide receiver Joshua Perez particularly felt that Lopez’s longer passes and the team’s new offensive strategies going into the game paid off.
“During the game, I think that the main plays were Damian at quarterback making deep throws throughout the game,” Perez said. “He was able to make several connections with Nolan Gallo, which helped us stay in the game and win it at the end.”
Going into the fourth quarter, the game was tied at 14-14. When the Warriors scored again and took the lead at 14-21, it did not stop the Bruins. With two minutes and 48 seconds left in the game, senior Mason Nguyen recovered a fumble and ran 40 yards to score a defensive touchdown. SCHS kicked the extra point and tied the game at 21-21.
With a little over two minutes in the game, South San Francisco made aggressive plays, reaching SCHS’s 20-yard line but was stopped before the endzone by senior cornerback Adenn Tran. Defense’s crucial stops and their touchdown kept SCHS in a good position to win.
“The turning point was our defensive touchdown because after that, we had all the momentum, and we knew that our defense could stop them and could make plays,” Gallo said. “I think that’s just what killed their momentum, and that gave us so much momentum going into the end of the fourth quarter and then into overtime, where we made a stop on defense to win the game.”
Now in overtime, SCHS got possession first. Lopez dropped back and threw the ball to Perez, who caught it in the end zone. The Bruins also made the extra point, turning the score to 28-21. The Warriors also scored a touchdown on their possession and attempted a two-point conversion to win the game, but they were unsuccessful.
With a final score of 28-27, the Bruins earned their homecoming victory. Assistant coach Rodney Chand reflected on the team’s performance and their determination to secure a win.
“We were able to persevere through some adversity, which ended in a victory for us today,” Chand said. “Our boys played really hard, and they played all four quarters and more. Moving forward, we are looking at still keeping it simple but trying to fold in some new concepts just to keep people guessing, but still maintaining that simplicity.”