Junior Jordan Sheade scored two touchdowns in a 20-13 win against Overfelt High School

Though missing key players such as captains seniors Giles Van Poetsch and Victor Wan, the varsity football team held on for a 20-13 win against Overfelt High School in San Jose on Sept. 3 to start their season with a 1-0 record.

In spite of the injuries sustained by the team, certain players found a way to step up their game. Junior Jordan Sheade had an outstanding game, scoring two of the team’s three touchdowns and having 134 rushing yards for a total of over 150 all-purpose yards. In addition, senior John Reinhardt, senior Grant Manley and junior Joe Malcolm were also praised by head coach Jeff Mueller for their solid, all-around play and defensive contributions.

“The line was doing a wonderful job blocking and always gave me a hole to run through,” Sheade said. “Everyone had their blocks, all I had to do was run.”

MVHS received the kickoff to start the first half, and junior Mahesh Vishwanath, in his second year of varsity football, made a strong return to bring the ball to the 36-yard line. OHS could not figure out how to stop this initial drive, as senior Freddy Kuo found Sheade in the end zone with a 16-yard touchdown pass to cap off a series of plays. Manley missed the extra point attempt, leaving the score 6-0.

After gaining possession, Sheade continued to torment the OHS defense with a series of runs and with a catch off of a tipped pass for a gain of 24 yards. As the clock wound down for the first quarter, junior Michael Whittaker was forced out of the game with an injury to his right ankle, which forced Mueller to shuffle up the lineup.

OHS then found themselves in a scoring position midway through the second quarter, but their field goal attempt fell short. Kuo’s pass was intercepted on the 25-yard line shortly before half-time, but OHS was unable to take advantage of the mistake to tie up the score.

The second half started out poorly for MVHS, with OHS running the kickoff all the way back for a touchdown and converting the extra point for a score of 6-7.

“[The touchdown return off my kickoff] got me more into [the game],” Manley said. “I wasn’t really into the game before then, and it was a wake-up call. ‘Wow, these guys just scored that easily; we got ourselves a game.‘”

After winning the ball due to a turnover on downs, Manley made catches of 23 and 13 yards to complement Sheade’s runs. This allowed MVHS to bring the ball back down the field, and Sheade ran in for a 9-yard touchdown. Kuo missed the subsequent two-point conversion attempt, making the score 12-7 at the end of the third quarter.

Five minutes into the final quarter, Sheade scored his third touchdown of the night with a 3-yard running play. This time, on another two-point conversion attempt, Kuo ran the ball into the end-zone off of a broken play to secure the extra points, putting the score at 20-7.OHS got themselves back into the game with a touchdown, which brought the score to 20-13. OHS then had a successful onside kick, putting pressure on the MVHS defense to hold strong. With just one second left on the clock, OHS made a 26-yard pass that sailed wide, sealing the Matadors’ first victory of the season.

Even though Mueller felt that the team did not play very well overall, he found some positives to take away from the game.

“It feels good to win,” Mueller said. “We ran the ball well and [Sheade] played real well.  We put him in a position in the second quarter that he had not played all year long and he did a great job.”

The next game will be at Prospect on Friday, with a junior varsity kickoff time of 4:30 p.m. and a varsity kickoff time of 7:00 p.m.

Corrections:

9/11/10- Junior Jordan Sheade scored all three touchdowns of the game and his third TD came from a 3 yard play.

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