It was a series of bad special teams play – three failed extra point attempts and a missed field goal – that caused Sobrato High School to come up three points short in a 28-25 loss to the Leland Chargers in a Mount Hamilton Division matchup Friday night in San Jose.
In a back-and-fourth game, Leland gained the three-point advantage when a pass by quarterback Matt McLaughlin to Kenny Potera allowed the senior to turn up-field for a 55-yard yard touchdown, giving the Chargers a 28-25 lead with 5:23 left in the game.
The Bulldogs, now 3-2 overall and 1-1 in league play, fought hard on offense, outgaining Leland 470 yards to 300. Leland advances to 3-2 and stays undefeated in league play at 2-0
“It’s a great team over there at Sobrato and every time we play them, it’s a battle,” said Chargers head coach Mike Carrazzo.
To add to the special teams frustration, on its final drive of the game, a holding penalty called back a 15-yard first down run by quarterback Michael Bocksnick , which would have put Sobrato on the Chargers 47-yard line with less than two minutes to play. The penalty forced the Bulldogs to turn the ball over on downs three plays later. The Chargers drained the clock to end the game.
“It was just a special teams breakdown tonight,” said Bulldogs head coach Nick Borello. “We scored four touchdowns, they scored four touchdowns, but we missed extra points (and) had some penalties. The special teams was failing and we missed a big field goal at halftime. It was a lot of the little things that turned out to be a big factor.”
On the Bulldogs first drive, and on third-and-18, Bocksnick turned a short yardage quarterback sneak into a 50-yard run into Chargers territory. Three plays later, Sobrato scored on a 1-yard scamper by senior running back Drew Glines, ending a drive that featured nine runs.
“Usually it’s a designed run and I’m reading the linebacker and seeing where he goes and whether or not they are giving away the run,” said Bocksnick, who finished with 11 rushes for 65 yards.
Sobrato elected to run the ball 12 times before the ball even left Bocksnick’s hands, but that changed in the second quarter.
After forcing the Chargers to a three-and-out, it took just three plays for Bocksnick to find a mismatch on senior wide receiver Isaiah Hardy. Bocksnick hit Hardy on a down-and-out route for a 64-yard touchdown pass, but a failed two-point attempt made it a 12-7 lead. Hardy had a game-high nine receptions for 159 yards and a touchdown.
“We knew coming into the game that we had mismatches all over the field with our athletes,” Hardy said. “It worked, but we just couldn’t come out with a win. We executed well on both sides of the ball, but the extra points are what killed us. We just have to go into practice next week and focus on the little things.”
A 39-yard reception by JoJo Nunn put the Bulldogs on their own 2-yard line with 1:15 left in the half, but Borello opted for the field goal, a 19-yarder that eventually flew wide left.
Come the third quarter, a Charger’s offense that was only able to muster 132 first-half yards was revitalized on it’s first drive by an 8-yard touchdown pass from McLaughlin to Potera, finishing a 10-play, 76-yard drive. This came after forcing the Bulldogs to go three-and-out on their first possession of the third quarter.
The Bulldogs answered on their following possession with a four-yard touchdown run by Calvin Tipton. But once again, the Bulldogs failed to add points on a 2-point conversion, keeping it’s lead to a modest 18-14 with 2:50 left in the third quarter.
Bocksnick was 12-of-17 for 216 yards and a touchdown, but McLaughlin was just that much better, going 18-of-24 with 245 yards and four touchdown passes.
“Their passing game simply beat us and it’s hard to simulate their passing game in practice,” Borello said. “But we told ourselves that this game was practically a draw. There were just some little breakdowns that hampered us. But this is one of the top teams in this league and we played with them the entire game. We were almost able to take this one away with a win which bodes well for the rest of the season.”
Sobrato hosts Santa Teresa in its first home league game next Saturday at 6 p.m.
