Carlmont’s newly renovated Bruce Usher Memorial Field experienced its first Gatorade shower on Friday night, but it was the visiting coach who ended up with ice in his shirt.
Led by quarterback Hashall Lal and his bright pink socks, the Mills offense propelled themselves to an early first half lead, and let their defense take care of the rest, en route to a 28-13 win.
With 3:27 left in the second quarter, the Vikings had third and long on their own 31. Carlmont brought the pass rush, and Lal found himself being chased down by a lineman in blue. He shook off the poor tackle attempt and slinged a 47-yard pass down the right sideline to his favorite receiver, Victor Beglitsoff.
The completion was a momentum changer for Mills, setting up for the team’s third touchdown, and it wasn’t the first time that Lal racked up big yardage on a completion.
Viking receivers blew up the Carlmont secondary in the first half, and Lal capitalized. On the sixth offensive play of the game for Mills, Lal hit Biglitsoff for a 36-yard touchdown, the first score of the game. In the second quarter he threw touchdowns for 25-yards and 13-yards.
“We were fired up to play tonight, and we executed,” said Lal.
Carlmont brought changes to its offensive plan this week. Quarterbacks Diairea James and Derek Gomez were given the green light to go to the air more often than they have in previous games.
The Scots gained most of their first half yards from passing, including a 35-yard touchdown pass from Gomez to wide receiver Matt Stalun.
Carlmont’s offense would have been more effective if it weren’t for the tremendous Viking defensive performance.
The defense made big plays when it counted, coming up with fourth down stops and forcing tackles for loss. After Lal threw his third touchdown, Carlmont was only able to have the ball for about one minute until it was intercepted by Mills defensive back, Conor Hidalgo on the Scot’s 20 yard line.
“We [the secondary] just dropped in and got ourselves in position to make big plays when they counted,” said Hidalgo.
The second half featured a very sluggish performance by both teams, for the most part. At the beginning of the second half, Carlmont forced a fumble on defense, recovered it, and took the drive down to the 4-yard line, where Yancey Portis nailed a Touchdown.
Carlmont’s game plan switched back to its basic run-first offense once the second half began. This caught Mills by surprise and confused the defense. However, Portis’ third quarter touchdown marked the last score of the game.
“Carlmont brought their game in the second half, sticking to their basic plays that they’re used to running. We, on the other hand, started to relax because of our big lead and because penalties hurt us,” said coach Packy Moss.
Carlmont’s spirits waned in the second half. With a significant decrease in attendance on Friday, the only group who seemed to be engaged was the band.
Although the spirit died in the second half, it was only minimal in the first half. In contrast to Mills, the Scots didn’t come out with enough energy on the football field. Mills’ victory was just the eighth time in school history that they had beaten Carlmont in football.
“Our performance in the first half was lackluster. We need to get more pumped up and get the fire going,” said assistant coach Gio Tenorio.
Carlmont (1-5) will re-energize next Friday night at 7 p.m. in its homecoming game against El Camino (3-2). Mills (3-2-1) will host San Mateo (2-3) next Friday at 7 p.m. in it’s home division opener.
