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• With Tie, Bears head to CCS - February 23, 2010

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Written by Trent Bastian

For the fifth straight time Menlo-Atherton lost by 22 points or more. This latest defeat was a relatively impressive showing against the PAL champions Terra Nova Tigers  who overcame the bears 49-27. Although a 22-point loss may not seem impressive, it showed promise for the young Bears.

The 27 points were the most M-A has scored all year much of which was through the 370 rushing yards, another season high for the Bears.

Alofangia Sakalia had 113 yards with touchdown runs of five and 22 yards. Bruising back Stephen Fafita compiled 87 yards over 12 carries with a nine-yard run touchdown run in the second quarter.

Junior quarterback Jon Hoech completed 10 passes for 125 yards, another solid performance after his debut against Sacred Heart last week.

Menlo-Atherton’s young defense failed to stop Terra Nova’s spread offense which has been successful all year and helped them become PAL champions.

One of the many positives that came out of Pacifica Friday night was Luke Pinkston who accumulated 10 tackles with two sacks electrifying the struggling M-A defense.  This sophomore will surely be a huge asset to the team in the future.

Menlo-Atherton (1-8, 0-4) is actually favored to win for once, this time against the Woodside Wildcats (0-9, 0-4). If looked at more in depth, Woodside only lost to Terra Nova by three points and to Aragon by 13. M-A lost to Terra Nova and Aragon by 22 and 27 points respectively. Woodside’s strength, and probably their only strength, is defense, but their struggling offense averages ten points per game.

Coming from the mouth of linebacker Dan Mohr, “We’re going to destroy Woodside.” Menlo-Atherton has the edge after the way they played against Terra Nova and if they can carry their momentum into Friday night’s game, they will avoid being dead last in PAL. One thing they cannot avoid is their first losing season since 2005 when they went 1-9 under Coach Greg Patner.

After this year’s disappointment  M-A football can only go up. There are only eight seniors on this year’s squad, which has contributed greatly to the lack of leadership that has plagued the team. Time will tell if next year the team will finally grow accustom to Coach Tony Rosso’s newly implemented offense.