By DON DELCO

LAFAYETTE, Calif. — Two second-half rushing touchdowns by Jason Fok led the Campolindo freshman football team to a come-from-behind victory over host Acalanes 14-7 on Thursday, Oct. 29.

It was Campolindo’s second consecutive victory in the rivalry series, as the Cougars won 6-0 last year after Acalanes won 50-10 in 2024. With the loss, Acalanes finished the season 4-5.

“I’m so proud of our guys,” Acalanes coach Dana Hemmingsen said. “I thought we played with determination and played really hard. I have a lot of respect for how our kids played. Campo is a good, well-coached team, but this game could’ve gone either way.”

Campolindo has now won three of its last four games to improve to 4-5 with one game remaining next week in Moraga against Clayton Valley. The Cougars started the season with losses in four of their first five games.

Acalanes scored the game’s first points early in the third quarter. Campolindo went three-and-out in the quarter’s opening possession, forcing the Cougars to line up to punt for the first time in the game. Acalanes’s Hudson Ciccio blocked the punt and the ball went out of bounds at the Campolindo 3-yard line. Three plays later from inside the 1-yard line, Eli Cooper fell forward with the help of a tush push by Tate Foster to give the Dons a 7-0 lead with 7:10 left in the third quarter.

After exchanging possessions, Campolindo faced another fourth down from its own 14-yard line. The Cougars, in punt formation, snapped the ball to their upback, Askel Navarro Rodarte, instead of the punter. Rodarte’s pass was intercepted by Acalanes return man Caelen Birrell, but the Dons were called for holding, negating the turnover.

“Especially with a rivalry game, our message to the kids entering the game was anything can happen,” Hemmingsen said. “These games are emotional and a ref’s call can impact a play and in a game like this one play can make a difference.”

Two plays later, Fok broke free on a 64-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 7 with 9:24 left in the fourth quarter.

“(Assistant coach) Kelli Hemmingsen and I were looking at the tablet on the sidelines on that play they scored on,” Dana Hemmingsen said. “Campo was offsides, our kids recognized it, but hesitated for just a second. That hesitation means you can’t recover and (Fok) just went running up the field.”

Cooley was intercepted on the ensuing possession and Campolindo took over at midfield. The Cougars drove 51 yards in seven plays, culminating in a 3-yard touchdown run by Fok with 5:46 left to play for what proved to be the game-winning score.

Fok led a balanced Campolindo attack with 145 yards rushing on 16 carries, and he also finished 11-for-21 passing for 103 yards. As a team, the Cougars finished with 303 total yards — 139 passing and 134 rushing.

Acalanes’ offense was held to 49 total yards — 44 in the air and five on the ground.

Luca Delco led the Dons defense with two tackles for a loss, a pass break-up and a quarterback sack. Massimo Cangini, Rocco Coniglio and Foster also had one sack each while Kai Harmeyer had a team-high two pass break-ups and Birrell added one. Dylan Andersen, Cangini and Foster each added one tackle for loss.

CAPTAINS FOR ‘THE GAME’ — Acalanes captains were Dylan Andersen, Caelen Birrell, Wesley Boxerman and Eli Cooley while the captains for Campolindo were Tripp Browne, Jason Fok, Cam Greer and Jai Merlo.

SCOUT TEAM PLAYER OF THE WEEK — Logan Kmet

NEXT GAME — There is no next game. That’s it for 2026. Until next season.