Football: Campolindo overwhelms Las Lomas with 31 unanswered points
WALNUT CREEK — When Las Lomas scored first, on a 45-yard run by Elijah Lash with the game less than two minutes old, it appeared the Knights, with their 8-0 record and No. 11 ranking in the Bay Area Preps HQ Top 25, would be celebrating senior night in style Friday.
But it took Campolindo only four plays and a little over one minute to make it 7-7, and from that point on the Cougars piled on with 24 more unanswered points in a 31-14 rout of Las Lomas.
Las Lomas, at 3-1, still holds a half-game lead in the Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division over Campolindo and Acalanes, who are both 2-1.
But if next Friday’s games go as expected, there will be a three-way tie atop the division standings with Las Lomas, Campolindo and Acalanes at 3-1. Campo hosts arch-rival Miramonte, Acalanes is at home against Alhambra and Las Lomas plays a non-league copntest against Northgate.
When it comes to the North Coast Section playoffs, it won’t really matter anyway. Campolindo is Division II, Las Lomas is D-III and Acalanes is D-IV. They should all get high seeds.
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Campolindo might shoot to the top of the D-II chart after the ease with which it handled Las Lomas. After falling behind 7-0, the Cougars answered when quarterback Grant Harper threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Rex Curtiss. Jacob Tabibian’s extra point made it 7-7.
The next time Campolindo (7-2) had the ball, Tabibian booted a 24-yard field to make it 10-7. It was a lead the Cougars never relinquished.
Campo led 17-7 at the half when fullback Will Windatt shoved his way into the end zone from 2 yards out, then it increased the lead to 24-7 with 22.9 seconds left in the third quarter when Harper threw an 8-yard pass to Ryan O’Neil.
Brandon Manty bulled over from the 1 in the fourth quarter for the final Campo score. That was the frosting on the cake.
Campolindo came into the game smarting after losing to Acalanes 17-7 last week. After that defeat, the “theme of the week was come to practice and get better,” Campolindo coach Kevin Macy said. “After the Acalanes game, they came to practice humble. We were going to establish a toughness during the week.”
The Cougars did just that. They had 335 yards of total offense compared to 242 for Las Lomas. They held the Knights to just 74 yards in the second half. Fifty-eight of those came on Las Lomas’ final drive of the evening which culminated in a 2-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Newell with 45.9 seconds left to play.
“That’s a good football team,” said Newell, who is committed to Oregon State and is regarded as the top senior running back in the Bay Area. “We came out ready to play and had a good first drive, but they came back and we couldn’t find an answer after that.”
Newell finished the evening with 15 runs for 77 yards. But many of those were tough yards as Campolindo stuffed the box and dared Las Lomas to throw. The Knights would up with 100 yards passing and 143 on the ground.
Linebacker Mason Mastrov was very disruptive for the Cougars and was a frequent visitor in the Las Lomas backfield.
“We were keeping me in the middle and had the tackles pinch,” Mastrov said. “We game-planned for them. We saw what they were doing. We saw we needed power on the inside to protect the run up the middle. Isaiah is a great back and so is Lash.”
Offensively, the plan was to get the ball to O’Neil and Windatt. O’Neil rushed for 85 yards and caught five passes for 47 yards and a score. Windatt added another 50 yards on the ground.
“I think the Acalanes loss was good for us,” O’Neil said. “Our practices are way more intense. Like on Tuesday we did basically a full scrimmage. Hitting and everything. We had never done that before.”
For Las Lomas, the loss ended a 19-game regular-season winning streak. The Knights last defeat in the regular season occurred Oct. 17, 2017 against Clayton Valley.