By Sam Bequette, Staff Writer
// The Acalanes Varsity football team showed up Friday night, taking down Newark Memorial 42-0 in the first round of the North Coast Section (NCS) playoffs.
The game goes down as Acalanes first shutout of the season, advancing them to the semifinal round of the playoffs.
“We had perfect defense.” Junior kicker Hunter Ridley said. ‘’Especially on every kickoff.’’
The Dons offense came out firing on their first offensive play of the game, with junior quarterback Brady Hutchingson throwing a 50-yard strike to senior receiver Lucas Eppinger for a touchdown.
Huchingson found junior running back Dane Jenssen on a short screen pass with two minutes left in the first quarter, and Jenssen did the rest, weaving through defenders for a 60 yard touchdown.
From there, the Dons continued to pile on, as Huchingson threw a 50 yard bomb to senior receiver Jack Muren for another touchdown, making the score 21-0.
Running back Nic Rossi plowed his way into the endzone for his first touchdown of the game with eight minutes left in the second quarter.
Acalanes continued the beatdown with five minutes left in the half, as Huchingson found Muren once again from 20 yards out for the score.
But the thrashing wasn’t over quite yet, and Lucas Eppinger made sure everyone knew that, returning a punt 78 yards for another score. The Dons trotted into the locker room at halftime with a 42 point lead.
In the second half, sophomore Luke Souza came in for Huchingson at quarterback. Both teams’ defenses stepped up, and neither team managed to score, wrapping up the 42-0 Dons victory.
Huchingson shined behind center, completing ten of twelve passes for 259 yards and four touchdowns before being replaced with Souza in the second half.
“Everything was just really going our way.” Ridley said. “We had some Junior Varsity (JV) players that we brought up for the game step up.”
With their heads held high from the victory, the Dons will start to prepare for a formidable opponent in the Marin Catholic Wildcats this week. Like the Dons, Marin Catholic recently shut out their first round opponent, demolishing the Kennedy Titans 52-0.
The two powerhouses will clash in Kentfield Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1:00 PM in the second round of the NCS playoffs.