Part of the Mounties' post-game celbrating before heading to San Mateo to win the championship - Photo by Sherazad Shaikh
Third time was a charm for the Mt. SAC Mounties football team as they finally won the state championship that had eluded them the past two years. The Mounties’Craig Payne’s interception with 1:02 remaining in the game preserved the 7-6 victory over the College of San Mateo Bulldogs Saturday afternoon at College Heights Stadium. This is the first championship for the Mounties since 1997.
Matt Faulkner, who was named the offensive MVP, went 10-of-22 for 162 yards and the go-ahead touchdown in the game for the Mounties.
Trailing 6-0 late in the third quarter, Faulkner connected on a 64-yard touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver Michael Harrell with :07 remaining to take the lead 7-6.
Neither team could do anything in the fourth quarter as they traded punts. Mt. SAC took possession with 2:49 to go in the game and a chance to run out the clock when Burton Iosefa fumbled on the Mounties’ 33-yard line to give the Bulldogs one last chance to take over the lead. They drove all the way to the Mounties’ 25-yard line to bring up fourth-and-two.
San Mateo, who lined up for a field goal attempt, then took a time out. When they returned to the field they chose to go for it. Bulldog quarterback Matt Palesasa then rolled out and threw an interception into the waiting hands of Mountie lineman Payne, who was named the game MVP.
“It was a team effort,” Payne said. “All my defensive teammates; all of the offense, we all did it. I’m just a freshman, so I didn’t know anything that happened the last two years. But it’s great to win it. This was for the sophomores.”
“I am very grateful for a great staff and players,” Mountie head coach Robert Jastrab said. “We got better every week. The defense has been doing this all year.”
Palesasa scored the bulldogs’ only touchdown on its first possession with a one-yard run. The two-point conversion however, failed.
“It feels great,” Faulkner said. “This is exactly where we have been the last two years. [However] a “W” in the state championship is what they wanted”
And they got it. Finally.
Henry Montemayor
Staff Writer
Information from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune contributed to this report.
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Go Mounties…………….all the way!!!!!!!