DUBLIN — Make no mistake about it: San Ramon Valley kept last year’s loss to Campolindo front and center for the last week entering Friday night’s North Coast Section Division II championship game.
“As soon as our game ended last week, we checked the score of the Campo-Cotate game and we saw Campo won and we just lit up with joy,” junior quarterback Luke Baker. “We were so ready to come here and get revenge on them.”
When discussing last year’s 17-14 loss in the D-II semifinals, senior Caleb Padrid said, “That’s just something that sticks with you. I was on the field when they took the final kneel to beat us and I still had that taste in my mouth.”
That taste is no longer there for the Wolves, who avenged the loss with a 35-21 win over the Cougars at Dublin High School to win the Division II championship.
It was Padrid who helped flip the script, grabbing the first of three second-half interceptions the Wolves had against Dashiell Weaver, Campolindo’s standout senior quarterback.
Down 21-14 at halftime, the Cougars took the opening kickoff of the second half to midfield, but Weaver’s third-and-long deep ball was picked by Padrid at the SRV 30. The senior then raced up the right sideline for a 70-yard pick-six, stretching the lead to two scores for the first time in the game.
“I started drifting back, and when I saw the ball in the air, I just went after it,” Padrid said of the interception.
After the teams traded touchdown drives, Campolindo converted two consecutive third-and-16 plays to get into the red zone. But on third-and-goal from the 3, Weaver’s end-zone pass intended for senior Robbie Mascheroni was tipped by SRV sophomore Owen Scott, and senior Seane Williams — who said this game was “personal” to him — made a diving catch for the interception and touchback.
Campo drives it to the 3, but Weaver’s pass is batted by soph. Owen Scott and senior Seane Williams makes the diving pick.
SRV 35, Campo 21, SRV ball with 7:29 left.@DarrenSabedra @joseph_dycus @Jesus_Cano88 @leftwich @GReeves23 @JensenPhil @VytasMazeika @CIFNCS pic.twitter.com/NxBTCtXyVK— Alex Simon (@AlexSimonSports) November 26, 2022
The Cougars would get the ball back once more, but Weaver was picked off again, this time by junior Jack Horton. It’d be the last offensive play for Campolindo and Weaver, who finished the night 19-for-35 for 219 yards and two rushing touchdowns and the three interceptions.
The 21 points is a season-low for Campolindo, which had scored at least 35 in each of the last five games they played before Friday. It took the big interceptions time to hold them there, which is what stood out to San Ramon Valley coach Aaron Becker.
“They came up big at the right time,” Becker said of his defense. “[Campo] had some nice third-down conversions with long yards that we were scratching our heads on. And then, just at the right moment at the right time, plays were needed to be made and they made them.”
Normally reliant on Baker’s arm, the junior only attempted two passes in the second half as the Wolves went run-heavy against the Cougars. Senior Nick Rivera carried the majority of the load, rushing 23 times for 140 bruising yards on the night, with 88 of those yards coming after halftime.
“We felt like we could gain some traction with our offensive line,” Becker said. “It played itself out in the second half that we were going to pound the ball.”
Rivera added, “I’ve got to give it up to the O-line. They kept opening up holes for us and we just could run it up the gut a lot.”
Even before the second-half turnovers, Campo had a chance to take the lead into halftime when they drove to the SRV 31 with three minutes left. But the Wolves forced a turnover on downs with 1:44 left and raced down to the red zone when Baker scrambled and found Padrid for a 12-yard touchdown with 15 seconds left.
That touchdown set up the pick-six for Padrid on the other side of halftime, and what looked like a potential two-touchdown lead for the Cougars ended up as a two-touchdown lead for the Wolves.
“They were out of our league,” Macy said. “We’ve had a history of catching these teams, but you have to play perfect. We had more turnovers than we’ve had all year … Our kids play hard, but we’re just outmanned, so you have to play perfect.”
Campolindo’s season ends at 12-1, though the one loss being the final game will sting for a while.
“We had a meeting last night and I was telling the team that 12-1 is a really ugly record,” Weaver said. “You rattle off 12 straight, but that one loss, it just invalidates everything. I’m feeling that now. Maybe someday, I’ll be able to look at it and say, ‘Hey, we did win 12 straight,’ but at the end of the day, we did lose and it stinks.”
But Weaver also said he “couldn’t be more proud” of the Cougars’ season. And while they may have regrets about Friday’s game, coach Kevin Macy wants to be clear: his quarterback is a massive part of why Campo got this far.
“The truth is, we’re a 5-5 team without Dash Weaver,” Macy said. “For us to get this far, we had 12 incredible games. Dash and [senior wide receiver] Robbie Mascheroni carried this team.
“But the other team, they had weapons. They had horses. No one’s gonna look at us and say we had horses and weapons.”
San Ramon Valley (11-2) will now wait until Sunday to find out when and where it’ll play in the NorCal regionals. But the Wolves will use the weekend to soak in a mission accomplished and a successful avenging of last year.
“We told them anything after this is icing on the cake,” Becker said. “This is the one that’s going to mean the most right now, and then we’ll go from there.”
