New ground: Wedemeyer all-star football games showcase boys, girls skills

LOS GATOS — For 51 years, Lucy Wedemeyer has attended the North-South Santa Clara County high school football game that furthers her husband’s legacy.

But until Saturday, she never had the opportunity to be a part of girls’ flag football under the same Wedemeyer All-Star Game banner.

Charlie, who coached Los Gatos High to a Central Coast Section championship while debilitated by Lou Gehrig’s Disease and inspired so many with his optimism in the face of adversity, would have been thrilled, Lucy said.

On his old home field, Santa Clara County flag football girls were showcased for the first time, with the South earning an 18-6 victory. In the boys tackle football game that completed the doubleheader, the North earned a 31-20 victory.

“I don’t have words for this,” Lucy said. “It’s been a bit of a dream. Charlie coached the 49ers’ wives in flag football way back. These girls want to play, they know the game. Charlie would have loved that.”

Peyton Pascual of St. Francis bookended the South victory with touchdowns. Her 16-yard run around left end opened the scoring. And her 57-yard fourth quarter touchdown catch and run off a short pass from Santa Clara’s Gigi Gonzalez closed it out.

“It was honestly a lot of fun,” Pascual said “I got to meet a lot of girls, great athletes. I thought it was an amazing experience.”

Gonzalez and Homestead’s Leona Kovaci combined to complete 11 of 24 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns for the South, including a 29-yard go-ahead throw from Gonzalez to Branham’s Maria Velasquez. Defensively, teammate Maryam Maskatia of Gunn intercepted two passes, including the clincher with 1:34 left.

“I was just trying to hunt the ball down,” Maskatia said. “I don’t remember the specific moment, but it was great afterward when everybody was cheering.”

The North, which got two sacks apiece from Karlie Gabriel of Castilleja and Melia Morales of Notre Dame, had a chance to draw within a touchdown in the fourth quarter but Branham’s Aubree Rosenblum intercepted a pass in the end zone.

The boys’ game came out rocking from the start. Archbishop Mitty’s Joseph Engin closed a game-opening 80-yard drive with a 31-yard pass to an uncovered Sefanaia Alatini of St. Francis in the end zone – the first of Alatini’s two touchdown catches.

But the game didn’t seem to take off in earnest until Los Gatos cornerback Bryce Novinsky blasted the South’s Travis Linane, de-cleating the Piedmont Hills receiver and breaking up the pass.

With the crowd and the North sideline still buzzing over the hit, Novinsky intercepted a pass two plays later and returned it 82 yards to the 10. That set up Alatini’s second TD catch, this time on a four-yard fade for a 14-0 North lead.

As if the North sideline didn’t have enough adrenaline, St. Francis running back Kaimani Keanaaina gave it another shot with a rousing 23-yard completion that featured a stiff arm to break a tackle and ended with his helmet flying off as he took a defender straight on to finish the play.

“I feel like we bonded in a short amount of time and that showed in how we executed our game plan and were able to get our great plays, great runs, great touchdowns, and big hits,” Keanaaina said. “I mean, it was definitely fun. I ain’t gonna lie, being able to play with a great bunch of guys and be able to get that win … man, it’s got to be one of the best feelings I’ve had.”

The North built a 24-0 lead before the South’s Prince Collins of Santa Teresa suggested to his coaches that the North was vulnerable deep.

“I told my coach, ‘We need to take a shot here,’” said Collins, who promptly snagged a deep ball in stride from Sobrato’s Brayden Hughes in the back of the end zone to get the South on the board.

Linane gained a measure of revenge on Novinsky in the fourth quarter by whirling out of his grasp on the way to completing an 11-yard play to the 1, setting up Jaylen Malcolm’s plunge to cut the deficit to 31-14.

Among the statistical leaders: Branham’s Christian Duarte intercepted two passes for the North, Sobrato’s Jacob Sorrentino caught five passes for 83 yards for the South, and Engin was 10-of-16 passing for 154 yards and two TDs for the North.

“It was awesome, honestly,” said North running back Michael Murphy of Branham. “You make a connection with people you like playing against during the season, and go to battle with them and become bros. It’s cool.”

Lucy Wedemeyer has seen that formula work for years.

“What I love about this is we bring all these teams together – 46 schools in Santa Clara County,” she said. “They come in as enemies and they make lifelong friends here. Watching that, this is what Charlie was all about.”