Mount Miguel High School football coach Verlain Betofe called it \u201cbig-boy football.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a dogfight,\u201d Betofe said after his No. 8-ranked Matadors went on the road and upset No, 7 San Marcos 28-27 in the season opener. \u201cSan Marcos runs a great program. They were in the Division 1 championship game last season because they\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game was every bit as close as the score.<\/p>\n
Trailing 28-21, San Marcos took possession at the Mount Miguel 46 with 1:06 to play. A 12-yard pass from Kreet Makihele to Lucas Swillens moved the ball to the 34 and a pass-interference penalty moved it to the 19.<\/p>\n
On the next play, Makihele hit Ezekiel McIntyre for a score, making it 28-27 with 44 seconds to play.<\/p>\n
San Marcos coach Tom Carroll shunned a tying kick, going for a go-ahead 2-point PAT.\u00a0 But Mount Miguel forced Makihele out of the pocket and his hurried throw into the left corner sailed wide.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went for the win,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cWe had to go for the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mount Miguel appeared to have the game put away when Tre Jefferson intercepted a Makihele pass with 2:17 to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just read my keys,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cMy man turned inside, I read it and got the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe practiced against that. And practice makes perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Matadors couldn\u2019t move the ball and on fourth down at their 47, the snap sailed wide of punter Clint Eddleman.<\/p>\n
Eddleman scooped up the ball at the 17, escaped a host of tacklers and got a punt off on the run.<\/p>\n
The play lost one yard, but could have been much worse.<\/p>\n
Mount Miguel scored first, hitting San Marcos with a big play when left-handed quarterback Jeremiah Loper found freshman Tamarrion Wiliams behind the defense for a 61-yard TD strike. San Marcos drew even, driving 79 yards on 12 plays with Zamar Reese going the final 3 yards.<\/p>\n
After an exchange of punts, Mount Miguel hit the Knights with another big one. This time, Loper faked a run, then flipped the ball to sophomore Khalonie Jordan, who sped down the far sideline for a 62-yard score.<\/p>\n
San Marcos fumbled away the ensuing kickoff with Titus Tauanuu recovering at the San Marcos 38.<\/p>\n
Six plays later, Jeremiah Holliday scored from 3 yards out to give Mount Miguel a 21-7 lead.<\/p>\n
San Marcos lost a chance to score when on the Mount Miguel 17, Jefferson tipped a Kreet Makihele pass and Jordan Fuga intercepted.\u00a0 San Marcos got back in the game, scoring on the opening drive of the second half with Reese scoring on a 5-yard run.<\/p>\n
Jayden Hunter rushed 20 times for 81 yards for Mount Miguel as the Matadors rushed for 128 yards.<\/p>\n
Loper completed 9 of 23 for 219 yards and a pair of TDs. He also scored on a 10-yard run. Zamar Reese rushed 16 times for 99 yards for San Marcos, which had 147 rushing yards.Makihele completed 11 of 21 for 155 yards, but was intercepted three times.<\/p>\n
Mount Miguel 28, San Marcos 27<\/p>\n
Mount Miguel 7 \u00a014 \u00a0 0 \u00a0 \u00a07 -28 <\/strong><\/p>\n San Marcos 0 \u00a0 \u00a07 \u00a0 7 \u00a013 \u2013 27 <\/strong><\/p>\n MM \u2014<\/strong> Williams 61 pass from Loper (Ettleman kick)<\/p>\n SM \u2014<\/strong> Reese 3 run (Hackett kick)<\/p>\n MM \u2014<\/strong> Jordan 62 pass from Loper (Ettleman kick)<\/p>\n MM \u2014<\/strong> Holliday 3 run (Ettleman kick)<\/p>\n SM \u2014<\/strong> Reese 18 run Hackett kick)<\/p>\n SM \u2014<\/strong> Swillens 1 pass from Makihele (Hackett kick)<\/p>\n MM \u2014<\/strong> Loper 10 run (Ettleman kick)<\/p>\n SM \u2014<\/strong> McIntyre 19 pass from Makihele (pass failed)<\/p>\n Originally Published: August 22, 2025 at 11:27 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mount Miguel High School football coach Verlain Betofe called it \u201cbig-boy football.\u201d \u201cThat was a dogfight,\u201d Betofe said…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3102,1370,3549,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-168509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115076746617859803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}