Prep football: San Marin leans on defense, special teams to shut out Foothill

On a night when its usually prolific offense never quite clicked into high gear, the San Marin High football team showed it could win with its defense and special teams.

Wesley Timmel returned the third-quarter kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, Nate Mandlebrot kicked two field goals, and the defense registered its first shutout since the first round of last year’s North Coast Section playoffs to secure a 20-0 home win against Foothill of Palo Cedro on Friday night.

“Defensively we were concerned about the jet sweep and their size up front,” San Marin coach Dom DiMare said. “We ran quite a few line stunts against them, played some press coverage, and forced them to throw the ball. We wanted to get them out of their run game. They are a very, very physical team and I’m glad we played them.”

San Marin (2-0) limited Foothill (1-1) to 24 passing yards and only allowed quarterback Jude Thompson to complete seven of his 20 pass attempts.

“Last week we let up 20 points and after the game I thought, even though we won, we could do better,” said Ryan Houlihan, who had San Marin’s lone interception. “So it’s good to come out here and put up a shutout – a donut – against a good team.”

San Marin defeated Foothill 55-28 last season but it was apparent early on that this game was not going to be a shootout. The Mustangs led 3-0 at the end of the first quarter but had been gifted a short field after Foothill had a bad snap on its first punt attempt.

San Marin scored its only offensive touchdown of the game late in the second quarter when quarterback Daniel Rolovich threw a 26-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline to receiver Wesley Timmel.

Timmel 26 pass td from rolovich. 10-0 San Marin. Late 2Q. #marinfootball pic.twitter.com/msdqfmWEwB

— Ian Ross (@IRossMIJ) September 7, 2024

The Mustangs took a 10-0 lead into the locker room at halftime then Timmel returned the opening kick of the second half for a 17-0 lead.

“(The Cougars) have a really good player there [Jesus Cervantes]. We saw he would really attack the middle (on kick coverage) so we wanted to attack the middle,” DiMare said. “We double teamed him and we were set up perfect. That’s a momentum switch. We come out at halftime, it’s a close game, and we end up scoring. It really changed the momentum and momentum in high school football is everything.”

Timmel received the ball at his own 5-yard line, eventually made a cut toward the right sideline then bolted to the end zone on the biggest play of the game.

“I saw a guy in front of me and I knew (Timmel) had to come up this way so I did my thing,” San Marin’s Henry Calderon said. “I stuck to my assignment. I gave him a nice block – the whole team gave him a block – and he did what he did. He’s a special playmaker so that’s what he does.”

San Marin’s offense got into the red zone one more time later in the third quarter but had to settle for another field goal by Mandlebrot for the final margin.

Rolovich completed 15 of his 20 pass attempts for 165 yards and a touchdown. Grant Means was the team’s leading receiver with six catches for 96 yards. Timmel had five catches for 52 yards.

Ezekiel Gomez had two catches for 14 yards – both acrobatic catches that helped set up San Marin’s first touchdown of the game. Jonah Lozano had a team-high 53 rushing yards on 10 carries.

Rio Seiler accounted for San Marin’s other defensive turnover, sacking Thompson on a fourth- down play in the fourth quarter and recovering a fumble to help preserve the shutout.

“It feels good to start out 2-o, especially with the win at home and especially with the donut because the word around town was are we as good as we were last year?,” Houlihan said. “So it’s good to come out here, start off strong, and let them know that we’re still here.”

San Marin 20, Foothill 0

Non-league

Foothill 0 0 0 0 – 0

San Marin 3 7 10 0 – 20

SCORING SUMMARY

SM–Mandlebrot 37 FG

SM–TImmel 26 pass from Rolovich (Mandlebrot kick)

SM–Timmel 95 kick return (Mandlebrot kick)

SM– Mandlebrot 30 FG

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–SM, Lozano 10-53, Farbstein 6-28, Rolovich 7-9. Totals 23-90. Foothill, Thompson 9-67, Munns 9-50, Kitchens 3-25, Gideon 2-1, Knowles 2-(minus-5). Totals 26-138.

PASSING–SM, Rolovich 15-20-0 165. Sacks: 3-19. Totals 15-20-0 146. Foothill, Thompson 7-20-1 28. Sacks: 1-4. Totals 7-20-1 24.

RECEIVING–SM, Means 6-96, Timmel 5-52, Gomez 2-14, Lozano 1-2, Cipollina 1-1. Totals 15-165. Foothill, Kitchens 1-10, Calvert 1-7, Knowles 4-7, Gideon 1-4. Totals 7-28.

Records–San Marin 2-0. Foothill 1-1.