Marin Catholic entered Thursday night’s league opener against San Marin without star tight end and San Jose State commit Braiden Bachich-Dixon, who was nursing an arm injury.
To compensate, Caedon Afsharipour completed passes to seven different receivers and Jarred Geissberger ran for two touchdowns and threw for a third as the Wildcats entered the new Redwood Empire Conference with a 21-7 road victory.
“Sometimes when you have a bully like Braiden, it’s hard for the other guys to shine. But we’ve got a lot of guys who can make plays,” said head coach Mazi Moayed. “We were wondering who was gonna step up, and some of those guys did tonight.”
None of Marin Catholic’s receivers compiled more than four receptions or 47 yards. The longest play of the night was Geissberger’s 47-yard reception to set up the game’s opening score, and arguably the most important was one of Chase Merrick’s two catches, a leaping 28-yard reception down the sideline to convert a third-and-10 on the first play of the fourth quarter.
“We’ve done that a couple times this year. Chase and I have a good connection,” said Afsharipour, who completed 12 of 20 passes for 181 yards and ran for an additional 42. “The o-line gave Chase some time to find some space, and he made a heck of a catch in traffic.”
Merrick’s reception was the signature play of a 15-play, 90-yard drive that gave Marin Catholic (4-2, 1-0 REC Adobe) a 21-7 lead. San Marin (5-1, 0-1) had driven all the way down to the Wildcats’ 3 on the prior drive, but Jude Baker broke up a fade on third down and Yale commit Sam Connelly’s tackle in the backfield on fourth-and-goal kept the visitors in front.
“We started getting pushed around a bit, and we just had to anchor down,” Connelly said. “Every time we got double-teamed, we hit the deck and did whatever we could to not give up a yard.”
Connelly’s tackle restored Marin Catholic’s dominance in the trenches on both sides of the ball. That physicality helped the Wildcats jump out to a 14-0 lead, but seemed to vanish after Daniel Gilmore’s interception in the second quarter.
The Wildcats were driving with a chance to take a commanding three-score advantage late in the second quarter when Afsharipour made one of his only mistakes on the night, an underthrown pass over the middle that Gilmore returned 62 yards to the MC 20. Jonah Lozano then set up first-and-goal with a 13-yard run, and Daniel Rolovich found Wesley Timmel over the middle for a 7-yard touchdown to get the home side on the board.
Momentum was squarely in the Mustangs’ hands going into halftime as they stayed within one score after Michael Giomi and Luke Saysette teamed up for a sack to push Marin Catholic out of the red zone and Ryan Houlahan blocked a 42-yard field goal. The Wildcats then went three-and-out to open the third quarter, and San Marin started its next drive just 45 yards from the end zone after a short punt. Lozano (21 carries-96 yards) ran seven straight times to get the hosts down to the 3, but got stuffed at the line by Vince Tarantino on his eighth consecutive attempt.
For San Marin to even have a chance to tie the game at any point seemed improbable after the way the night started. Liam Daly knocked a pass down at the line to force an early punt, and Geissberger took a pass over the middle for a 47-yard pickup. On the next play, he took a snap out of a jumbo wildcat formation and threw a 6-yard touchdown to Jordan Rogers.
Afsharipour then hit five different receivers on the Wildcats’ second possession, with a 24-yard pass to Rogers on third-and-10 from the San Marin 30. Geissberger then ran for a 3-yard touchdown out of that same jumbo formation on the first play of the second quarter.
Geissberger’s 8-yard touchdown run, again out of that jumbo formation, with 10:24 remaining was the game’s final score. He finished the night with 85 rushing yards on 17 carries, a 47-yard reception and a 6-yard touchdown pass.
Rolovich went 8-for-20 for 70 yards in the losing effort. Joey Cipollina was his top target, with four receptions for 36 yards.
“We dropped a lot of footballs,” Mustangs head coach Dominic DiMare said. “When you play at this level, you can’t make those mistakes.”
San Marin got down to Marin Catholic’s 24 after Geissberger’s final touchdown of the night, but Colin Lovette sacked Rolovich on second down and Baker broke up a deep pass over the middle on fourth down with 3:24 left.
The Mustangs will visit Windsor (5-0) next Friday. Marin Catholic hosts Vintage (4-1) next Saturday afternoon.
Read more of Ethan's stories here: