DANVILLE – The pass floated toward the back corner of the end zone, hanging long enough for hearts to sink on both sides.
Campolindo receiver Joe Revelos made a desperate leap, hoping to make a touchdown catch that would extend the overtime period and perhaps his team’s season.
But San Ramon Valley’s Dylan Deitsch knocked the ball away while teammate Henry Ellis defended Revelos.
SRV players and coaches raised or in the case of head coach Aaron Becker tried to raise their arms in triumph late Friday night while Campo players dropped to the ground.
In an epic first-round playoff game in the North Coast Section’s top division, second-seeded San Ramon Valley survived on its home field to beat seventh-seeded Campolindo 38-31 in overtime.
The Wolves will face top-seeded De La Salle next Friday at Dublin High for the section’s Open Division championship and a spot in a NorCal regional. The loser will play for the NCS Division I title in two weeks.
Campolindo’s season is over but only after the Cougars put up one heck of a fight.
“They’re a really good team and they came ready to play,” SRV quarterback Luke Baker said. “They’re a scrappy team. It’s playoffs. A win’s a win.”
This one appeared over in the first quarter as SRV looked the part of a heavyweight as it roared to a 21-0 lead.
Matthew Garibaldi, who scored the decisive touchdown in overtime on a 14-yard run, opened the scoring in the first period with a 21-yard run up the middle.
After a turnover, SRV made it 14-0 when Baker threw a 17-yard strike to Danny Drucker just 6 ½ minutes into the game.
When Kevin Spears returned an interception 59 yards for a touchdown, SRV led 21-0 with still 1:46 left before the start of the second quarter.
Campo coach Kevin Macy, an outspoken critic of the NCS’s competitive equity system that put his team in the Open/Division I bracket, looked like the wisest man on the field.
But then his team did what it always does. It battled and battled.
Egor Dobrolyubov’s field goal got Campo on the scoreboard. Isaiah Ortiz followed with a 53-yard touchdown pass to Revelos that cut the margin to 21-10.
Sebastien Antonios-McCrea then intercepted a pass, and SRV receiver Owen Scott took a knee to the head trying to tackle the Campo defender.
In a scary moment, SRV coaches rushed to the field to be with the motionless player, calling for the ambulance parked beyond one of the end zones to hurry out to the field.
Scott eventually got up and was helped to the bench. He did not return.
“I think when Owen went out, it took the wind out of our sails for a second,” Becker said. “They capitalized on the momentum swing. Give them credit. They’re well-coached. They played hard, and they took us to the wire.”
Campo drove 36 yards for a touchdown after Antonios-McCrea’s interception to cut the deficit to 21-17. Ortiz’s 4-yard pass to Scott Lyon on third down accounted for the score.
SRV’s Austin Shelton kicked a short field goal just before halftime to make it 24-17 but by then it was clear that this game would be anything but one-sided.
Campo opened the second half with an 80-yard touchdown drive that ended when Ortiz connected with Revelos from 14 yards out on third-and-seven.
That tied the score 24-24.
The rest of the half turned into a defensive slugfest, with neither side able to break the tie score until Mack Fisher intercepted a pass and raced down the sideline, the 65-yard pick-six giving Campo a 31-24 lead with 5:31 left.
“That’s what they’re known for; we don’t quit,” Macy said. “They keep fighting. We did everything we could do. There was nothing more we could have done.”
SRV answered with a 1-yard touchdown run by Marco Jones with 1:18 to play to even the score again, 31-31, but Campo made one last charge in an attempt to settle the outcome before overtime.
A 47-yard pass from Ortiz to Tim Daugherty moved the Cougars to the SRV 36.
Campo eventually tried a 44-yard field goal that came up short.
Garibaldi opened the OT session with an 11-yard run to the 14. On the next snap, he ran across the goal line to give SRV the lead.
“It took everyone,” Garibaldi said. “It took everyone’s hard work, offense and defense and mostly the line. I couldn’t do it without them.”
Campo was unable to respond on its OT possession, its last pass from the 22 getting knocked away by Deitsch in the end zone.
“We could have definitely given up after that pick-six, a couple of unfortunate events that didn’t go our way,” Jones said. “But we have a lot of guys that are high-spirited. We stayed in it and knew we could win this game.”
Next up: De La Salle, a team that beat SRV in overtime last month.
