SAN MATEO - The Burlingame Panthers missed their alarm on Saturday morning.
At halftime, trailing 3-0, John Philipopoulos told his team, “Wake up. Realize who you are.”
It took them a while to do so, but once the visiting Panthers did wake up, they certainly made up for lost time. Just like a high school student realizing they had overslept, Burlingame was jolted awake, scoring three times in a six-minute span en route to a 20-10 win over rival San Mateo, winning the 90th Little Big Game and claiming The Paw for an eighth straight year. Figuratively speaking, the Panthers missed their alarm, but after finally waking up, they threw on clothes, got dressed, eat breakfast and made it to class with time to spare.
San Mateo (6-3) had a chance to go up by two scores late in the third after a 41-yard pass from Jose Ontiveros to Jake Jeffries had the Bearcats in the red zone, but as Ontiveros dropped back to pass on the following third down, he was hit by Dylan Neeley and Andrew Sloboda picked the ball out of mid-air.
From there, Burlingame’s offense finally got to work. The Panthers drove 87 yards on nine plays, taking advantage of 30 San Mateo penalty yards and finishing the drive on Alec Meredith’s 4-yard touchdown run to take a 6-3 lead with 1:55 left in the third.
Up until then, Burlingame (6-3) had been moving the ball, but the Panthers were unable to capitalize. They were stopped three times on downs in the first half and another drive ended on a Neeley fumble after he hauled in a deep pass.
San Mateo went three-and-out again to close the third quarter, and the Panthers answered with another lengthy drive, covering 77 yards on seven plays. Savaun Brown’s 8-yard touchdown run made it 13-3 with 8:12 left.
The defense immediately put the game out of reach, with Neeley once again forcing a turnover. This time, he was the one to grab the interception, returning it 33 yards for another touchdown after a thunderous hit on the QB by Youcef Benchohra.
“Our defense is pretty much our whole team right now,” said Neeley.
That was especially true on Saturday, as Burlingame allowed just 52 yards in the first half and 138 in all. Even with a 23-yard run on San Mateo’s first play from scrimmage, the Panther defense allowed just 28 rushing yards on the day. Meredith single-handedly tripled San Mateo’s rushing output, with 84 yards on 15 carries.
Burlingame’s opening drive was stopped on downs shy of midfield, and De’Hay Allen’s long run led to a 38-yard Juan Guzman field goal to put the Bearcats up 3-0. After that, little was heard from the San Mateo offense until the final moments. The momentum from the long pass from Ontiveros to Jeffries was immediately snuffed out by the game-changing turnover. Ontiveros did connect with Jeffries in the final minute on a 26-yard touchdown pass on fourth down. Jeffries hauled in six passes for 100 yards.
Neither team played a particularly smooth game. Burlingame was called for 10 penalties for 111 yards, and San Mateo took seven for 75. Overall, the Panthers dominated the line of scrimmage, outgaining the hosts 312-138 and gaining 18 first downs to San Mateo’s seven.
Still, the Bearcats can hold their heads high after leading for nearly three quarters against a Bay Division team. San Mateo hadn’t even held a halftime lead in the Little Big Game since 2009, the last time the Bearcats topped the Panthers.
“Our defense played great, like they have all year,” said San Mateo coach Jeff Scheller. “We had a couple key injuries and we’ve struggled on offense, but they fought hard and I’m proud of them.”
Having lost the past two meetings by a combined score of 77-13, even keeping the game moderately competitive would have been a step in the right direction for San Mateo. Instead, the Bearcats led for more than half the game, a sign that things are certainly looking up on Delaware Street.
San Mateo wraps up its season on Friday at Capuchino, while Burlingame will travel to Terra Nova on Thursday with a playoff berth on the line. The Panthers would claim the PAL Bay’s fourth and final automatic spot with a win, while a loss would likely leave them on the outside looking in.
