by Matthew Suh ’24
San Jose, CA — The student section theme was “beach day,” yet the gray and ominous clouds loomed over San Jose City College in anticipation of a highly competitive matchup between the visiting McClymonds Warriors and Bellarmine Bells on the first day of September. Little did Bellarmine know that just 36 minutes into the game, they would be trailing McClymonds 32-0 and eventually get shut out in their second game under new head coach David Diaz-Infante.
Bellarmine’s second game of the season started off like any other game, with a few three-and-outs and solid defense up front. McClymonds was quick to capitalize off of Bellarmine’s lack of offense and kept feeding the ball to RB Ta’jir Golden. Golden outperformed every single player on both McClymonds and Bellarmine, leading to a monster performance in his first game as a senior. On the night, Golden finished with 24 rush attempts for 178 yards in addition to 2 receptions for 21 receiving yards and 4 total touchdowns.
From the beginning, it was clear that McClymonds’ game plan was to run the ball with Golden mixed in with a few pass attempts by their QB Jacob Wasso. However, early on, Wasso suffered an injury that would take him out of the game for the rest of the night, opening the door for backup QB and starting K Isaac Espinoza to come in at QB for McClymonds. McClymonds finished their dominant performance with 6 total touchdowns against Bellarmine in their first game of the season.
On the other hand, Bellarmine lacked offense all night, which was partially due to McClymonds stout defensive front. Bellarmine tried to establish the run game early on with RB Reece McKeever, but McClymonds shut the run game down quickly, stuffing the gap almost every play. Forced to throw the ball on 3rd down and longs, Bellarmine QB Parker Threatt tried to hit some receivers downfield but never had enough time to even make his reads because of McClymonds aggressive pressure they brought. Threatt would try to scramble out of the pocket and make some magic happen every time to no avail. The highlight of the game for Bellarmine was a 32-yard toss to WR Luca Bovone, which was called back due to a holding penalty on Bellarmine.
Fans quickly piled out of the stadium at the end of the third quarter as Bellarmine trailed McClymonds 32-0. McClymonds would only add on to their season-high numbers in the fourth quarter as second-string RB Sharky Tamale scored a 39-yard rushing TD in garbage time, making the score 40-0.
This was McClymonds second win against Bellarmine in the past two years under their head coach Michael Peters, father of NFL cornerback Marcus Peters.
After holding on to a close win against Menlo-Atherton last week, Bellarmine was blown away (quite literally) by McClymonds run game in their second game of the season. Bellarmine is now 1-1 (0.500 win percentage) on the season as they head up to Monte Vista High School in Danville, California for Week 3. Bellarmine looks to bounce back both on offense and defense after a long and restful Labor Day Weekend.
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Matthew Suh is a staff writer and contributor for The Bell Online, Talking Points Sports, and The Press Box. Follow Matthew on Twitter @matthewsuh.