San Leandro High School Football Starts Off With a Big Win

This last Friday, Sept. 2, opened its football season against perennially tough Berkeley High School at Burrell Field. It would be the first game of the last season in the Hayward Area Athletic League (HAAL). 

San Leandro started the game quick with an interception on Berkeley’s first drive and kept a fierce tempo throughout the first half. 

The first play interception led to a long offensive drive for the Pirates in which freshmen quarterback Stephen Johnson passed for a 43-yard touchdown. Johnson is allowed to play at the varsity level as a freshman because of a recent change to North Coast Section rules. 

After two more touchdowns, including a 60-yard fumble return by San Leandro in the second quarter, Berkeley would put some points on the board with 7:26 left in the half. At halftime the score was 28-6, San Leandro. 

“The kids are playing with a lot of passion and heat right now,” San Leandro linebackers coach J. C. Liesenfeld said of the varsity squad as they trotted towards the locker room at halftime. 

Stephen Johnson would go on to complete four of five passes for 150 yards and three touchdowns. But it wasn’t only offense that shined. The defense had many crucial sacks, fumbles, interceptions and goal-line stands to keep the team in a dominant position the entire game. 

Ultimately San Leandro finished off the visiting Yellowjackets with a score of 34-14. 

This game, and this season, has some symbolic significance because the HAAL will be dissolved and the league realigned in 2012. So this game was a preview of two teams destined to compete each year for a long time to come when Berkeley, Alameda, Encinal and Piedmont high schools join most of the schools from the HAAL in a yet to be named new league. 

Moreau Catholic will leave the HAAL to play with schools from the Mission Valley Athletic League. 

San Leandro dominated the HAAL through much of the ‘90s and early 2000s, and head coach Brad Bowers would like nothing more to take home the very last HAAL championship of all time. 

Bishop O’Dowd and Castro Valley high schools will most likely be the other main contenders this year for the crown. 

“The guys came out fast [in the first game], they set the tempo on the first series. It was something we worked hard on all summer,” Bowers said. 

The team will have to keep that up in order to win the championship this year and leave the HAAL on top. 

Bowers believes this year is a special squad with a lot of talent that has some good leadership and experience on the team. 

Check out the San Leandro Pirates at their next game as they play in the now annual tradition of the Battle of the 880 Corridor vs. James Logan High School. The game is at James Logan Friday at 7 pm.