Prep football roundup: San Marin takes down St. Ignatius in road upset

Andrew Keehn put together a dominating performance on the defensive line, piling up five sacks and authoring a game-changing play with an interception return for a touchdown as the San Marin High football team came away with a 27-24 win at St. Ignatius in the season opener for both teams on Friday night.

The Mustangs (1-0) went into the halftime locker room trailing 10-7 but came out with a surge in the third quarter. Quarterback Daniel Rolovich threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Ezekial Gomez to put the Mustangs in front 14-10 on the opening drive of the half.

St. Ignatius (0-1), which started former Marin Catholic quarterback Caedon Afsharipour in the first half, turned to backup QB Bobby Gomez to start the second half. The Wildcats rolled the dice on a fourth-and-8 play near midfield but Keehn came up with the interception and returned it for a 21-10 lead.

St. Ignatius went three and out then a bad punt set San Marin up with a relatively short field. Rolovich scored his second rushing touchdown of the day for a 27-10 lead late in the third quarter.

St. Ignatius climbed back into the game with some help from San Marin’s special teams. The Mustangs were running the clock down with under 6 minutes to play but the drive stalled out. A bad snap on the ensuing punt gave St. Ignatius the ball inside the 5-yard line and Afsharipour quickly capitalized to pull the Wildcats within 27-24 inside the final 5 minutes.

San Marin was able to run out the clock from there, crucially getting the Wildcats to jump offside on a fourth-and-2 play near midfield with under 3 minutes to play.

San Marin coach Dom DiMare was quick to highlight the efforts of Jackson Young and Jorge Magana who played both ways on the line to help San Marin swing the game in the second half.

“We had a quite a few guys platooning both ways,” DiMare said. “That’s where the game is won and lost, on the offensive line.”

Inderkum 21, Marin Catholic 20

The Wildcats scored on a rushing touchdown by Jarred Geissberger as time expired to pull within a point but the potential go-ahead, two-point conversion fell incomplete as Inderkum held on for a dramatic victory.

The game was a far cry from last year’s meeting between the two teams when MC was shut out at home 26-0. MC jumped in front 7-0 as new quarterback Dylan Skrinar threw a touchdown pass on his first drive as a varsity starter.

Inderkum scored twice before the half to take a 14-7 lead into the locker room. The Wildcats (0-1) drove into the red zone in the third quarter and tied the score at 14-14 on Skrinar’s second touchdown pass of the game. Cooper Milan and Nick Brisbin had receiving touchdowns for MC

Inderkum (1-1) broke a long return on the ensuing kickoff and went ahead for good at 21-14 on a touchdown pass two plays later.

MC, which was plagued by bad snaps in the loss to Inderkum last season, dealt with that issue again on Friday night. The defense played well enough to keep it a one-score game going into the final few minutes.

A pass interference flag against Inderkum set MC up on the 35-yard line with 55 seconds to play. Skrinar completed a series of throws to get MC to the 3-yard line in the waning seconds. MC ran the ball down to the 1-yard line then spiked the ball with about 2 seconds left to set up the fourth-and-goal touchdown on the final play.

San Leandro 7, Redwood 2

Kevin Peterson registered a safety with about 3 minutes to go in the game to put the Giants on the board. Redwood was able to get the ball back one more time but San Leandro came up with an interception around the 40-yard line inside the final minute to seal the victory.

The Giants (0-1) and the Pirates (1-0) went into halftime in a 0-0 game. San Leandro took the lead on a touchdown with about 5 minutes left to play in the third quarter.