SAN LEANDRO – Brad Bowers is not afraid to schedule his alma mater, or anyone else for that matter. Even if the result is a 41-6 loss Friday night by previously unbeaten San Leandro at Burrell Field against visiting Bellarmine.
“I’m not trying to hide,” Bowers said. “I want to play good teams because I know our kids can handle it, I believe our kids can do it. But this helps us learn that we’ve got to take care of the little things. We have to pay attention to detail.”
Unranked in the Bay Area News Group preseason poll, No. 12 Bellarmine (2-0) made a statement in its season opener – a 56-41 shootout against Menlo-Atherton.
No. 14 San Leandro (2-1) took notice during film session and forced turnovers on consecutive possessions by the Bells to open the game.
“They came in very well prepared,” said Bellarmine coach Jalal Beauchman, also a graduate of the West Catholic Athletic League school. “Some things that worked for us against M-A didn’t look so great to start. So hat’s off to them, they did their homework. And ultimately they’re big up front, they’re strong up front and across the board they have good players. You can’t get a sense of that from film and I think our boys were a little bit surprised that we had a hard battle ahead of us.”
PREP FOOTBALL WEEK 3 COVERAGE
On the Bells’ third snap from scrimmage, San Leandro middle linebacker Ray Ve’e forced and recovered a fumble.
After an ensuing punt by the Pirates, cornerback Taylor Fortier leapt for a 50/50 ball and came down with an interception to secure a scoreless first quarter.
“I think coming into this game we were confident, but through that first drive and those first couple of plays we weren’t really locked in yet,” Bellarmine co-captain Ben Pfaff said. “Those turnovers and that wake-up call, we really needed that to lock us in mentally and know that this is going to be a dogfight and that we’ve got to play our best football if we want to win this game.”
The Bells barely blinked the rest of the way, as quarterback Wade Smith broke the deadlock on a 5-yard touchdown run with 7:17 left until halftime.
Pfaff proceeded to plow in from a yard out with 11 second to go and no timeouts left to make it 14-0 at intermission.
But after come-from-behind victories by San Leandro the previous two weeks on the road against Cardinal Newman and Freedom, no lead felt safe until the fourth quarter.
“We were never comfortable because we know this team has two really big comebacks,” Beauchman said. “And in the second half we knew that we had to continue to battle.”
After another 1-yard TD run by Pfaff on the opening possession of the third quarter, the Pirates finally found the end zone on a 14-yard burst by junior Ferrari Miller Jr., who finished with a team-high 72 rushing yards on eight carries.
Bellarmine answered with a 15-yard touchdown catch by tight end Brody Stratz to make it 28-6 with 4:56 left in the third quarter.
San Leandro’s last gasp ended after a trip to the red zone derailed on a bad snap and subsequent interception in the end zone by Bellarmine junior Nate Escalada, who nearly returned it for a pick-six all the way across the field with 6:30 left in the game.
On the next snap, Pfaff – 17 carries, 96 yards – ripped off a 33-yard touchdown, his third of the night.
Escalada capped the scoring on a 10-yard with the backups already inserted.
Next week, the Bells host Central Catholic (3-0) of Modesto at San Jose City College.
“We just have to make sure we don’t take anything for granted,” Beauchman said. “And now that we’re 2-0, we can’t have a bad week of practice because we don’t want to start the way we did this week.”
Bellarmine alumni are confident in the direction of the program under its second-year coach, including his counterpart on the sidelines Friday night.
“There’s no doubt that he’s doing a great job over there,” Bowers said. “You could see it a little bit last year, but you get five games, you don’t get contact with the kids. That spring season was tough, you couldn’t expect anything great to come out of that. But he’s got things on track right now.”
