The Bear Cubs defense nearly gave up a 28 point lead on Oct. 9 in a sloppy game that saw Mendocino College make a scary comeback, but SRJC held on, winning 49-34.
“We had guys doing their own thing. Mendocino put up 35 or whatever points; San Mateo will score 90 if we do that,” said coach Keith Simons.
The game left fans with more questions than answers. Starting quarterback Blake Bledsoe did not play well. He was benched in the second half after going 15 of 28 for 144 yards. He was sacked four times and held the ball for long periods of time instead of throwing it away. “Blake didn’t make very good decisions out there,” Simons said. “There were times where he ran out of bounds for a eight yard loss instead of just throwing the ball away. He is a young kid.”
Bledsoe was replaced by freshman Jarred Hasskamp, who entered the game in the second quarter and played the rest of the second half. Hasskamp played well, going 13 of 20 for 130 yards and three touchdown passes.
The Mendocino Eagles had no business making this game close. They turned the ball over five times; all were interceptions. The Eagles got within 15 points in the fourth quarter after being down by as much as 28. “We didn’t think they would come back, but we did give them a little leeway,” said Wide Receiver Javoris Bryant.
“I think we got too comfortable on the sidelines. We were lax and that showed on the field,” Simons said. “We gave up some cheap touchdowns at the end that made it closer than what it should have been.”
The Bear Cubs went three and out on their first possession of the game. The Bear Cubs punted, but it was blocked by the Eagles corner back Scott Benefield. After a sack by Bear Cubs defensive lineman Andre Shishkin, the Eagles scored on a dump pass to their running back Marco Cobb to take an early 7-0 lead.
The Bear Cubs came back on offense and looked worse than their first possession. A snap went over the head of Bledsoe for a loss of 22-yards. They went three and out again. The Bear Cubs defense came back and did not allow the Eagles to drive the ball.
After another Bear Cub offensive series stalled, Simons decided to call a fake punt that sparked his offense for the rest of the game. “Anytime that we look at film and we see that someone is doing something on their punt return team that gives us the fake, we’re going to fake it whenever and wherever. It comes down to execution and we got a couple of nice blocks. That was a big play,” Simons said.
After the play, the Bear Cubs marched down the field and scored on a 1-yard touchdown run by Orion Kamins.
Travis Hayes made the biggest play of the first half for the Bear Cubs defense. The Eagles had an eight—minute drive and were in the red zone when Eagles quarterback Colin Florence threw a pass that was intercepted by Bear Cub safety Hayes that he nearly returned for a touchdown. He was downed on the 2-yard line and that set up another 1-yard touchdown to Kamins.
After another Bear Cubs offensive series stalled, Coach Simons benched Bledsoe and put in Jarred Hasskamp, who lead the offense to a touchdown on his first series at quarterback.
In the second half Bledsoe started the beginning of the third quarter, but was done after another Bear Cubs series hindered.
The Bear Cubs defense got their fourth interception of the game when Eagles backup quarterback Justin Gomez threw a screen pass right into the hands of Ryan Decker for a 3-yard touchdown return.
Hasskamp lead the Bear Cub on a four play 1:18 drive for a touchdown to extend their ead to 35-7.
The Eagles put in their third string quarterback, who led Mendocino to a score right before the end of the third quarter. Then things started to get out of hand for the Bear Cub defense. While Hasskamp and the offense were putting up points, the Bear Cubs defense were giving up points.
The Eagles trimmed their deficit from 28 to 15 in six minutes. The Eagle fans were immediately back to their seats after Jason Varret returned the kickoff 84-yards for a touchdown that sealed the game for the Bear Cubs.
Coach Simons was not happy with the play of his starting quarterback. When asked about who will start next week’s game Simons said “We will look at tape. We compete at practice to see who the best guy is. We got two good quarterbacks.” When Hasskamp was asked if he thinks he will start Hasskamp said, “I don’t know. It all depends how practices goes.”