ATHERTON – The Menlo express keeps speeding on.
Menlo greeted its Central Coast Section Division II first-round opponent, Half Moon Bay, the same way it greeted many of its past opponents – with touchdowns, and lots of them. The undefeated Knights reached the end zone four straight times in the first half and ended the warm day with a 47-28 victory.
“Our kids came out ready to play and the plan was right,” Menlo coach Todd Smith said. “They’ve got a great group over there.
“We’re still undefeated. Now we go on to the next week.”
The next stop for No. 4 seed Menlo (11-0) is a road game against No. 1 San Benito (9-1) on Friday night at 7 p.m. in the Division II semifinals.
Menlo showed its intentions early on Saturday against No. 5 seed Half Moon Bay (5-5). Knights quarterback Sergio Beltran passed on two of his team’s first offensive plays, then on fourth down, a fake punt resulted in a six-yard pass from punter Ross Muchnick to Bob Enright for a first down. Six plays later, Beltran connected with Carter Jung for a 39-yard touchdown and the lead for good.
“M-A has a similar style of play; we saw how they put up a lot,” said Menlo quarterback Sergio Beltran about Menlo-Atherton’s 47-46 win over Half Moon Bay earlier this season. “We knew we wanted to take shots early, like double moves, deep shots, and set the tone.”
Half Moon Bay tied the score at 7 on a 27-yard run by quarterback William Moffitt and a point-after-touchdown kick by Julian Jimenez. But Beltran found Jung again in the red zone for a nine-yard touchdown and the lead to stay at 13-7 in the first quarter.
Menlo’s Alec Jabal immediately pounced on an onside kick, and on the first play of the second quarter, Beltran reached the end zone on a three-yard run. A two-point conversion pass from Beltran to Jung gave Menlo a 21-7 advantage. In the next Menlo series, Beltran connected with Bob Enright for a 26-yard score and a three-touchdown lead in the second quarter. Enright had six receptions for 63 yards in the game.
Beltran and Jung connected for another touchdown, a 70-yard bomb in the fourth quarter in Beltran’s last offensive play of the game with 9 minutes, 56 seconds remaining. Beltran had a hand in six of Menlo’s seven touchdowns (four passes, two runs). The senior finished with a game-high 148 yards rushing and 12 completions in 20 passing attempts for 215 yards. Jung had six of those receptions for 134 yards. Jung also blocked a point-after-touchdown kick on special teams.
“They executed well,” longtime Half Moon Bay coach Keith Holden said. “We thought we’d keep it close. I thought it would be an exciting game and I thought it would come down to the last play. I thought we prepared well and gave ourselves an opportunity to win. Preparing well and executing well are two different things; we prepared well and we didn’t execute well, and they did.
“Todd has done a good job with them. I told him this is the best Menlo team I’ve ever seen, in my opinion, and they’ve had some good ones.”
Half Moon Bay entered halftime with some momentum, as Moffitt produced the second of his three touchdowns on the ground with a three-yard run and passed for 49 yards on the Cougars’ next series before time ran out. The senior finished with a team-high 92 yards rushing and 210 yards passing.
But Menlo grabbed the momentum right back on the second-half kickoff, as Ty Richardson scored on an 87-yard return and the eventual winning score. Half Moon Bay advanced 80 yards on its next series and reached the end zone on an 11-yard run by Moffitt, but 40 seconds into the fourth quarter, Beltran ran up the middle for a four-yard touchdown and a 41-20 Menlo lead. The bomb from Beltran to Jung was the final touchdown of the game for the Knights, and Half Moon Bay ended the game’s scoring with a one-yard run by Emilio Villalobos and a two-point conversion from Moffitt to Kai Zanette.
Menlo’s defense was opportunistic: Tyler Flynn recovered a fumble in the first quarter, and Sam Scola and Chris Liao grabbed fourth-quarter interceptions.
For Half Moon Bay, PJ Modena had six receptions for 68 yards and Zanette added four catches for 75 yards. The Cougars’ Sam Lowings blocked two PAT attempts.
Source: www.mercurynews.com