Miramonte High prevails against Las Lomas in battle of undefeated teams

Las Lomas and Miramonte High came into Friday night’s football game looking to remain unbeaten. After a tight fourth quarter of play, Miramonte was the one to keep a perfect record this season with a 33-28 win.

The Matadors (7-0), led by senior quarterback Ross Anderson, were able to put together offensive drives to score four unanswered touchdowns after falling behind 7-0 in the first quarter.

Anderson and his quick receiving corps made the most out of short routes, breaking tackles after the catch and gaining big yardage.

“We knew their corners played off, so we knew we could hit quick stuff inside or on the outside,” said Anderson. “We have speed and athleticism with our receivers. We know that they can beat their one-on-one matchups, so we looked to hit that.”

The biggest play of the game was made by Anderson, who depleted the Knights’ momentum with an 80-yard touchdown run with six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Before that run, Las Lomas had climbed back from a 26-7 deficit in the final quarter to within five points.

Anderson finished the night passing for 219 yards and three touchdowns.

The Knights’ offense could not get going until the fourth quarter. That was in big part a result of receivers and quarterback not being in the same page, some drops, bad snaps from center and some fumbled exchanges between the center and quarterback.

Las Lomas High (5-1) head coach Doug Longero knew defense was going to be key against the Matadors.

“They’re a great team," said Longero. "We knew we had to play well on defense and we didn’t. There’s probably three plays that we broke down on and they got plays out of them.”

Backup quarterback Adam Wood started in place of injured Jackson Miller and fared well, completing 18 of 28 passes for 354 yards and three touchdowns.

“We had a new quarterback tonight, so I expected some fumbles in there and we did,” Longero said. “Our kids played hard, they played a great football game. We’ll be fine.”

Longero said his team will work to fundamentals next week, including tackling and hand-off exchanges. He expects the Knights to rebound next game.

Jack Schram, Miramonte head coach, treated the game as a playoff game.

“We knew our next three games, (Las Lomas), Campolindo and Dublin are 15-1 overall. So, this was a great chance for us to be in a playoff atmosphere, playoff football," he said. “We’re good enough to win division three. We've just got to keep our eyes focused on the next team and go for it. This was like a playoff for us and we treated it like one. We practiced like it was a playoff game.”