Football: Foothill Erases 20-point Deficit, Beats James Logan

Foothill 38, James Logan 28

The Star: Foothill quarterback David Camarena threw for 202 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 71 yards and two more scores.

The Turning Point: Facing a 20-10 deficit and a first-and-goal at the eight-yard line, Foothill held Logan out of the end zone to take the momentum and confidence heading into the half.

The quote: "We didn't panic," Foothill coach Matt Sweeney said after his team was down 20-0 in the first quarter.

What's Next: Foothill has a bye next week and is back in action Oct. 1 when it opens East Bay Athletic League play at De La Salle.

Bottom line: After spotting Logan 20 points, Foothill scrapped the dougle-tight, double-wing offense. The Falcons played a spread offense and scored 31-straight points. The Falcons went to their trio of senior leaders in Camarena, Cameron Rowland and Colin Kacinski.

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The Foothill High football team opened its non-league game at James Logan Friday night in about the worst way possible.

After watching host James Logan strike with a game-opening touchdown, Foothill fumbled on the second offensive play from scrimmage. After allowing a field goal, the Falcons fumbled on the second play of the next series of plays.

That also resulted in a field goal.

The Falcons still couldn't find any continuity on offense with their next three plays. Although by then, they had scrapped the double-tight, double-wing offense in favor of a spread offense.

After a three-and-out, they watched Logan score another touchdown and trailed 20-0 with a minute, 21 seconds left in the first quarter.

"We didn't panic," Foothill coach Matt Sweeney said. "We told them to just keep playing and play with short memories."

The Falcons would go on to score 31-straight points and outscored Logan 38-8 the rest of the way in a thrilling and improbable come-from-behind 38-28 non-league win.

With the win, Foothill caps a perfect 3-0 non-league season. The Falcons have a bye next week and will be back in action Oct. 1, when they open East Bay Athletic League at De La Salle.

"We have a lot of momentum (going into league)," Foothill quarterback David Camarena said.

Camarena was instrumental in the comeback win.Foothill knew the double-win offense wasn't going to be effective against Logan, especially on the old-school AstroTurf, which speeds the game up.

"They're D-line was getting a good rush and we had to make a change," Camarena said.

Camarena had his best game of the year with 202 yards passing on a 6-for-12 effort. He threw for a pair of touchdowns and rushed for 71 yards on seven carries including touchdown runs from 29 and 40 yards out. The latter gave Foothill a 38-28 lead with 3:49 left in the game.

His top targets were wide receivers Colin Kacinski, who caught three passes for 116 yards and Cameron Rowland, who caught three passes for 86 yards.

Rowland caught a touchdown pass and threw a touchdown pass. Kacinski also caught a touchdown pass.

"We had to mix it up," Sweeney said of the offense. "Camarena came through."

Foothill's first score of the game came with 8:41 left in the second quarter when Camarena took the snap and pitched it to Rowland, who threw to Stephen Ferrell for a 10-yard touchdown pass.

After forcing a three-and-out, Foothill got the ball back with 6:45 left in the half and marched down to the Logan 26-yard line where the drive stalled.

Still, the Falcons put up three points on a Luis Castillo field goal and trailed 20-10 with 5:12 left.

Logan's next set of plays turned out to be some of the most important of the game.

On a drive that started at its own 20-yard line, Logan went 72 yards on 10 plays that included a fake punt on fourth-and-9 from the 38, to set up a first-and-goal at the 8.

This is where Foothill's defense strapped it down. It held Logan out of the end zone on four-straight plays and went into the half with a ton of confidence.

"That was a huge defensive stand," Sweeney said. "If they score there, it's 27-10 and they took off a chunk of yards. A huge stand."

Foothill cut into the lead with 8:19 left in the third quarter from its own 29. Camarena hit Kacinski for a 71-yard touchdown pass. Logan's lead was down to 20-17.

After forcing another punt, Foothill got the ball back and this time it made Logan pay for not adding more points to the board.

This all-important drive started a the 18. Four rushes, one 32-yard pass and a pass interference later, Camarena scored on a quarterback keeper from 29 yards out and gave Foothill its first lead of the game, 24-20.

Foothill extended that lead to 31-20 when Camarena hit Rowland for a 35-yard touchdown pass on a second-and-13 with 10:02 left in the game.

"It helps a lot to have great players like that with great hands," Camarena said of Rowland and Kacinski.

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Foothill 38, James Logan 28

Foothill           0  10 14 14 — 38
James Logan 20 0  0   8 — 28
Scoring summary
9:15, 1^st: JL — Wahab 42 pass from Bua (Ulloa kick)

6:59, 1^st: JL — Ulloa 32 field goal

4:15, 1^st: JL — Ulloa 38 field goal

1:21, 1^st: JL — Hodge 56 pass from Prothro (Ulloa kick)

8:41, 2^nd: F — Ferrell 10 pass from Rowland (Castillo kick)

5:12, 2^nd: F — Castillo 43 field goal

8:19, 3^rd: F — Kacinski 79 pass from Camarena (Castillo kick)

1:51, 3^rd: F — Camarena 29 run (Castillo kick)

10:02, 4^th: F — Rowland 35 pass from Camarena (Castillo kick)

6:16, 4^th: JL — Beasley 9 run (Long run)

3:49, 4^th: F — Camarena 40 run (Castillo kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing (car-yards): F — Connolly 26-96, Camarena 7-71, Rowland 2-13, Kacinski 1-1. JL — Long 19-132, Beasley 20-59, Aleem 1-12, Prothro 3-9, Bua 1-(-2).
Passing (comp-att-yards-ints): F — Camarena 6-12-202-0, Rowland 1-1-10-0. JL — Bua 8-16-98-0, Prothro 1-2-56-0.
Receiving (rec-yards): F — Kacinski 3-116, Rowland 3-86, Ferrell 1-10. JL — Wahab 4-63, Bell 3-20, Hodge 1-56, Jones 1-15.
Team offense (rush-pass-total)

Foothill— 181-212-393

Logan — 210-154-364

Fumbles/lost: Foothill 2/2; Logan 1/1.

Records: Foothill 3-0, Logan 2-1.

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