BELMONT, Calif. - On a night filled with flying candy, creative floats and the screams of fans on the sideline for Carlmont's Homecoming, the Scots and Fighting Knights put on a show, with Hillsdale coming out on top, 56-41.
The Fighting Knights (6-2, 3-1 PAL-Ocean) were led by running back Nathan Iskander, who ran for over 240 yards and five touchdowns. Iskander also passed for a touchdown on a trick play. On the Scots' side, quarterback Tim Netane passed for four touchdowns, three of which were caught by wide receiver Wes Brown.
The Scots (3-5, 0-3) got the ball back with 5:47 in the fourth, looking to make it a one-touchdown game. However, a fumble on the first play of the drive was recovered by the Fighting Knights, who then put the game away with an 11-yard rushing touchdown by Iskander.
"Our defense gives it their all 24/7, and if our offense keeps working hard, we can be unstoppable," said Iskander. "My offensive line does all the work and I just need to run through the holes they create."
While the game was all but over, the Scots didn't put their heads down and drove down the field one last time, scoring a touchdown on a 1-yard rush by Dane Fifita.
"We have determined guys whore really care about the game, but football is a game of attrition, and we're losing that battle right now with injuries and a couple of guys who couldn't take care of their academics," said Carlmont head coach Jake Messina. "It's just slowly picking apart our team, but I'm proud of our guys and I thought they did a great job in the face of some real difficulty."
The Fighting Knights set the tone early, putting the first points on the board with a 10-yard touchdown pass by Iskander to Parker Crouse. The score came late in the first quarter after the previous three drives by both teams had stalled.
The Scots responded by putting together a drive capped off by a 20-yard touchdown pass from Netane caught by Brown, his first of three. Three plays earlier, Brown seemed to give up on a ball that could've been caught, resulting in coach Messina's ire.
"At the beginning of the game I was dealing with a hurt hip, and coach telling me I have to focus more motivated me to go out there and push through and go get those three touchdowns," Brown said.
The score wasn't even for long, as on the ensuing drive, the Fighting Knights scored on a 16-yard touchdown rush by Iskander, which was set up by a 46-yard catch by Crouse on 3rd-15, giving them a 14-7 lead.
The Scots weren't fazed, however, and three drives later scored on a 38-yard catch from Brown.
After the halftime performances, including the showcasing of the homecoming floats, the Fighting Knights got back to business. A 43-yard touchdown catch by Marc Baldwin boosted their lead to 28-7, as they had scored just before the half.
Carlmont again responded with a touchdown, coming on a 7-yard rush by Fifita. The PAT hit the upright, however, and the Scots were down 28-20.
The two teams continued to respond with touchdowns for the next five drives, one of which included Netane's fourth touchdown pass on the night.
Carlmont is notoriously known for being a run-first team, and the four passing touchdowns to two rushing touchdowns are an oddity.
"It shows that we are able to do both, we can pass and run," Brown said. "We have a great sophomore quarterback who can throw when he needs to, we just have to make those calls."
Iskander's 61-yard rushing touchdown also came during this spree and was just one of many big runs he broke off.
The back-and-forth streak was broken when Carlmont fumbled the ball and allowed Iskander to score his fifth and final rushing touchdown on the day.
The Scots did attempt a last-ditch onside kick, but the Fighting Knights fell on top of it and kneeled down to end the game.
While the Scots ultimately fell short, they were neck and neck with the Fighting Knights until the final minutes.
"On the plus side of things, our quarterback skewered their defense and did an amazing job for a sophomore. However, the unfortunate reality is that every week, the injury/ineligibility bug keeps reeling its ugly head and we couldn't overcome it," Messina said. "But they're a good team and they're big. We did have some opportunities but you can only do what you can do, and I think we did everything that we could.".
With playoffs looming around the corner, Hillsdale head coach Mike Parodi prefers to be thinking about their upcoming game against San Mateo, rather than the playoffs themselves.
"I'm not worried about the playoffs, we have San Mateo next week and Aragon the week after, and those are the only two games we have guaranteed on our schedule," said Parodi. "Right now, we're only worried about San Mateo next week."
The Fighting Knights were also fairly consistent in driving down the field and scoring, whereas the Scots weren't.
"We always work hard in practice and we have to outplay our opponent, and if we do lack in size we have to get back in speed," said Iskander. "The offensive line was incredible today and I couldn't ask for a better one."
The Homecoming atmosphere is something that is a tradition of high school. It's not just welcoming to the home team, but also creates a comfortable setting for the away team as well.
"I like being invited to Homecoming, it's fun. The thing that made it awesome is such a great atmosphere here, to have so many of their friends and family here, same with us, and we only live like two blocks away. I thought they did a really good job with their Homecoming at halftime and it was just a lot of fun," Parodi said. "This is what high school football is supposed to look like; just a bunch of kids hanging out on a Friday night and we just happened to be the better team out there tonight."
Fumble Frenzy
Between the two teams, there were a total of six fumbles, with four of them belonging to the Fighting Knights. Fortunately for Hillsdale, they only lost two of these fumbles, and the Scots only scored seven points off of them. While the Scots only fumbled twice and turned it over once, the fumble they lost occurred when they needed a score to stay in the game. There were no interceptions thrown by either team.
