SAN FRANCISCO – Senior running back Noah Loeliger led the Campolindo attack on Saturday afternoon, as the Cougars defeated St. Ignatius, 35-14 at JB Murphy Field.
Loeliger carried the offense from the beginning. The first play from scrimmage saw Loeliger break a few tackles and run 76 yards for a very early Campolindo touchdown.
“The line was just blocking for me,” Loeliger said. “I just had more motivation this week to get the ball forward.”
Loeliger continued to dominate throughout the game, rushing for 194 yards and three touchdowns.
“Obviously, if we don’t have [Loeliger] – that game was closer than whatever the score says – and if we didn’t have him, we would’ve been struggling completely,” Campolindo coach Kevin Macy said. “He became the difference today offensively for us.”
Loeliger’s second rushing touchdown came early in the second quarter. His short four-yard score extended the Cougars’ lead to 21-7. Late in the third quarter, Loeliger ran 17 yards for his third touchdown – and Campolindo’s final touchdown – to put his team up 35-14.
Campolindo’s other two scores came on a 64-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Jacob Westphal to junior wide receiver Kevin Mossotti and a two-yard touchdown rush from senior Branden Bocobo.
“We’re an inexperienced group of kids,” Macy said. “We don’t have a lot of returners. So, I think for us just to keep finding a way to get better as we play, I think that was what was nice.”
As for St. Ignatius, the Wildcats responded nicely to Loeliger’s opening touchdown, completing a 70-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown rush from senior quarterback Patrick Brosnan. Early in the second quarter, junior running back Henry Vatinel broke free for an 80-yard touchdown run to bring SI closer, 21-14.
But the Wildcats’ offense was silent in the second half, as the Campolindo defense held them scoreless.
“I thought we did a good job up front throughout the game,” SI coach John Regalia said. “I thought we were able to drive the ball throughout the game. And we did that in the second half. We turned the ball over a little bit. We got into a situation where we had to hurry up a little bit because we got down by a couple scores, so that kind of changed the approach.”
St. Ignatius (1-1) travels to Marin Catholic (1-1) to play the Wildcats on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Campolindo (1-1) plays Deer Valley (1-1) on the road on Friday night at 7:00 p.m.
