Prep football: Tam rolls in league opener against Terra Linda

The Tam High football team found the end zone by almost every way possible in rolling to a 57-0 victory over host Terra Linda to open up the MCAL season at San Rafael High on Saturday night.

The Red-tailed Hawks (2-2, 1-0 MCAL) scored on the ground, through the air, on a kick return and on a blocked punt in closing the door quickly on the Trojans (1-3, 0-1), who managed just 35 yards of offense on the night.

Nick Schottenfeld tossed a pair of touchdown passes – a 25-yarder to Ezra Levy (four catches, 43 yards) and a 12-yarder to William Basnight (two TD receptions). Sebastian Chen rushed for a score and finished with 99 yards on 12 carries in helping Tam build a 38-0 halftime advantage.

“Most of the time I thought it was great,” Tam coach Matthew LemMon said of the win. “We started to teeter off obviously when you’re up, so we have to work on that. We got the running game going which we’ve struggling with. We got some good passes, which it was good to see (Schottenfeld) get back in rhythm because he had a couple off games.

“We had some guys injured and they got to come back because we had the bye week, so we’re starting to see them all together what it looks like. So it’s really exciting.”

The only blemishes that Tam had in the first-half were four personal-foul penalties, two of which negated 20-plus yard punt returns by Jake Son early on.

TL appeared to get some momentum when Mcguire Lawson picked off Schottenfeld on second and goal from the 3, but TL went three and out and the Hawks scored on their next four possessions.

Tam put a capper on the rout when William Bruns blocked a punt deep in TL territory and Sam Reade scooped up the loose ball and ran it in from the 10 with just over 30 seconds left in the half.

Reade added another score the next time he got his hands on the ball when he took the second-half kickoff back 86 yards.

“I knew I want to return the first kick I got since I haven’t had a return this year” said Reade, who also had three catches for 35 yards. “I saw they were all on the left side so I said ‘Ok. Right’s going to be open,’ So I put it to the middle, took the hole and went.”

Tam, which rushed for 195 yards, is hoping for more of the same next week against Redwood.

“It’s good to come off a win going into next regular-season game,” Chen said. “Our running game was good. Our guys up front were giving some good push and opening up some nice holes. Our guys were definitely up for this and were always in the right spot.”

TL’s best chance of getting some points came to start the second quarter.

After recovering Tam’s onside kick and 15 more yards were tacked on for a late hit, the Trojans were able to move the ball down to Tam’s 16.

The threat ended on the next play when Christian Son recovered a fumble on an errant option toss.

“It was a tough one, I’m proud of our kids,” TL coach Dallas Hartwell said. “It’s difficult when you lose by a big margin. They played hard, made some plays, tackles for losses.

“We’re a young football team. Our sophomore quarterback (Garrett Pardo) was running really hard, coaching up teammates. Jackson Pattani and Ryder Mariani played over 100 snaps where you know the ballgame’s out of hand.”

Tam 57, Terra Linda 0

MCAL

T 14 24 13 6 — 57

TL 0 0 0 0 — 0

SCORING SUMMARY

T-Chen 4 run (run failed)

T-Levy 25 pass from Schottenfeld (Moore pass from Schottenfeld)

T-Mansouri 19 run (Mansouri run)

T-Basnight 12 pass from Schottenfeld (Reade run)

T-Reade 10 blocked punt (Levy pass from Schottenfeld)

T-Reade 86 kickoff return (run failed)

T-Basnight 22 pass from Young (Chen kick)

T-King 2 run (kick failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING‑Tam, Chen 12-99, Reade 2-17, Mansouri 3-34, DeLorimier 3-28, Young 1-10, Schottenfeld 1-6, King 2-1. Totals: 24-195. TL, Pardo 8-14, Mariani 4-8, Velaquez 2-3, Lardizabal 7-3, Fuentes 1-2, De Langis 1-2, Cordon 1-(minus 2). Totals: 24-30.

PASSING-Tam, Schottenfeld 12-15-1 149, Young 3-6-0 31. Totals: 14-20-1 174. TL, Pardo 1-8-1 5, Mariani 0-1-1 0. Totals: 1-9-2 5.

RECEIVING – Kuhns 3-53, Levy 4-43, Reade 3-35, Basnight 2-34, Son 1-9, Chen 1-0. Totals: 14-174. TL, Pattani 1-5.

Records: Tam 2-2, 1-0. TL 1-3, 0-1.