Greyhound surge from behind in 20-16 victory over Eagles
Report and photo by Jonathan Sze,
– The Atascadero High School Greyhounds Football Team Friday pulled out a fourth-quarter comeback against the Templeton Eagles Friday night by a score of 20-16 in Templeton.
Two early penalties on the opening drive for Atascadero left a third and five for the Greyhounds. A play-action pass busted the Eagles’ defense with junior wide receiver Josiah Ganoa picking up 45 yards and into Templeton territory.
Another penalty on Atascadero still couldn’t stop the Greyhounds from going down to the five-yard line. Senior quarterback Kane Cooks took a direct snap and fumbled it out the back of the endzone for a touchback, turning the ball over to Templeton.
Templeton looked to score first on a long run but a hold negated the touchdown, and would have to settle for a field goal on their opening drive.
A big return on the kickoff gave the Greyhounds the ball on the Templeton 35-yard line, but they could not get it anywhere and turned it over on downs.
Templeton took a few plays to drive down the field before senior running back River Waltmire got a couple of blocks after a catch and took it all the way for a touchdown making it 10-0.
Atascadero responded on the following drive with a Cooks option play from 6 yards out to bring the score to 10-7 as the second quarter was winding down.
Templeton had the ball late and drove down the field and got to the red zone and as time expired Waltmire put a field goal through to make it a 13-7 game going into halftime.
Another Cooks fumble in the third quarter gave short field position to Templeton, Waltmire again got a field goal making it 16-7 and pushing it to a two-score deficit.
A run by senior running back Mateo Cano brought the ball to the one-yard line where Kane snuck it in for a touchdown to make it 16-14 with 8:39 left in the game.
Templeton was able to run some clock off but was forced to punt to Atascadero with under six minutes left to play.
Atascadero almost had a Cano fumble but he never caught the ball and it was incomplete. The Greyhounds quickly recovered and drove the ball all the way down to the red zone as the game ticked under two minutes left.
Senior wide receiver Mason Degnan shook free of his man and Cooks found him in the endzone with 1:30 left in the game to go ahead 20-16 after a missed extra point.
The Eagles had all three of their timeouts as they drove down the field looking for the winning score.
However, their drive was cut short as sophomore quarterback Harrison Bays threw a jump ball that Atascadero came down with to put an end to Templeton’s hope of victory.
“This is the first time we faced that much adversity in this season,” Atascadero head coach Victor Cooper said. “Templeton had a hell of a game plan for us, and probably deserved to win just as much as we did.”
Atascadero moves to 7-0 and 3–0 in Ocean league play. The Greyhounds play the Morro Bay Pirates at Morro Bay Oct. 13 at 7 p.m.
