August 28, 2024
It was a beautiful evening in Marin County, perfect for our very first high school football game. We squared off against the San Marin Mustangs. And if there was a theme it would have been: “this ain’t flag football boys”. For most of the freshman Dons, this was indeed their first tackle football game; but they hung in much better than indicated by the 38-0 loss.
The pre-game commenced with captains Maxim Volpian (1), Kyle Sanftner (67) and Joaquin Bordi (22) marching to the center of the field. For these three, each having a terrific showing, this was just clocking in.
The offense was led by Colton Whalen-Schlosser (9) in the QB spot. His top targets for the evening were Nick Zagorvo (5) and Dylan Icay (18), where he connected for multiple completed passes. Joaquin Bordi (22) was an absolute workhorse with ten carries. Colton scrambled impressively all evening and had a number near completions, my guess as this unit seasons, many of those attempts turn into nice positive possessions. And hats off to the thankless job of the offensive line. They don’t get any glory or sexy stats, but they created lanes, bought time and took care of their QB.
The defense had a number of highlights. As mentioned earlier, this was the first tackle football game for the majority of our team, but they threw down. Maxim Volpian (1) led the team with seven tackles, Miles Moore (25) came in with five, Dax Vail (42) and Joaquin Bordi (22) rounded out the top of the leaderboard with four each. Treysen Roberts (11), Marco Long (19), Gino Rubio (27), Landon Paige (34), Cade Korpita (35), Sean Tandler (55), Kyle Sanftner (67), Graham Welton (78) and Will Siamas (80) all introduced multiple Mustangs to the turf. And let’s not forget a key ingredient of quality “D”, making the passer “uncomfortable”. We logged 2 sacks, one by Mason Andersen (21), and the other by Sean Tandler (55). Sean’s sack, I definitely heard it, and I kinda think I felt it. Whoa. Defensive line/backs did an amazing job coming at the Mustang’s QB, notable pressure and near sacks coming from: Maxim Volpain (1), Gianluca Ginocchio (64), Kyler Sanftner (67), Joe Wilson (68) and Graham Welton (78).
Now we prepare for the Dons JV and Varsity bouts with Lowell tonight. Sidenote, if you need to brush up on the history of Lowell High School and their football program please see Tommy Macleods opponent preview, but set some time aside…
Looking forward to a fantastic season.
Go Dons!
**Please note the above stats were collected by this author, and I know I missed a ton. Feel free to double them when you have that call with Grandma. Just like our boys, I will improve too (or I hope).