A week after winning its first-ever varsity football game in school history, the MacDonald Condors made it two in a row on Friday. MacDonald beat Mills at home 41-34 on Oct. 4 for its first-ever win and followed suit on Oct. 11 with its first road victory, 20-14 over Cupertino.
The road win over Cupertino wasn’t particularly pretty, certainly no Picasso, but two key redemption plays and a stout rushing defense paved the way for another W.
The opening kickoff went about as poorly as a kickoff can go for any team. A pooch kick was fumbled by MacDonald’s Dominic Ortega and recovered by the Pioneers. The ensuing drive for Cupertino would nearly stall, but the Pioneers converted a 4th and 9 pass play en route to a touchdown.
On the very next kickoff, Ortega got the ball kicked to him again, and this time, he caught the line drive kick cleanly and bolted straight up the field for a 62 yards to the Cupertino eight-yard line. On the very next play, Ortega took the handoff into the endzone for the redemption touchdown.
“I was happy that I could redeem myself after that unfortunate fumble,” chimed Ortega after the win. “I ran hard, and I ran fast.”
Ortega wasn’t the only Condor who managed a quick redemption story arc in quick fashion.
With the Condors nursing a 20-14 lead, wide receiver Ethan Bugarin had what looked like an easy touchdown on a fourth-down play with just under six minutes remaining in the game. Bugarin could not reel in the catch, though, and the Pioneers took over on downs.
After another stop from the Condors’ defense, Bugarin got his redemption with a crucial 22-yard first-down reception on 3rd-and-15 near midfield and just under three minutes remaining on the clock. MacDonald would pick up one more additional first down and was able to run out the clock.
“It felt really good. Definitely felt like I redeemed myself and made it up to my coaches and teammates,” acknowledged Bugarin. “I knew if I had scored that touchdown, I would have sealed the game earlier, but at least I got it back at the end.”
Neither Ortega nor Bugarin let their errors get in their heads, showing maturity to move on to the next opportunity.
“We have a phrase we coined, we call it ‘last play, next play.’ So, forget about the last play, focus on the next play,” remarked Condors Head Coach Burt Codera. “It’s really easy to make a mistake from one play snowball into multiple mistakes. Everyone has the habit of doing it, so we just have to go a quick little ‘last play, next play.’ Forget about that one and focus on the next one. I think both those guys did a great job in those situations of doing just that.”
Ortega and Bugarin were certainly the offensive stars for the Condors, along with quarterback Moussa Fall, each of whom found the end zone. The defense however, won this game for MacDonald, holding onto a six-point lead for the final 22 minutes of the second half.
“They really buckled down. We could have put the game away multiple times,” noted Codera on his defense. “We had to put the D back out there over and over and they came through and got the big stops when we needed it.”
With the win, the Condors have improved to 2-4 overall and 2-2 in league with a game at Saratoga up next on Oct. 18.
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