City College comes back in the fourth quarter to improve to 8-0

By Ryan Kuhn
The Guardsman 

Rams quarterback Turner Baty summed up the Oct. 29 game against the College of San Mateo in five words, “Great teams sometimes win ugly.”

After falling behind early in the fourth quarter, City College clawed their way back to keep their perfect record intact when Baty threw a 26-yard pass to Caleb Hollie setting up the quarterback for a 1-yard run with 8:13 left to put his team on top 17-14 eventually sealing the win.

Although the majority of City College’s games this season have been decided by an average margin of 36-points, head coach George Rush said he was proud of the way his team performed.

“I like the intensity we brought and we need to make the plays that we did to win,” he said.

On the sideline, the intensity was running through both the players and the coaching staff. They knew another win would take them one step closer to a Norcal Conference championship and the right to play for a spot in the state championship.

“It’s hard to coach a game with the intensity as big as it is,” Rush said. “It gets you going and the knots going on Thursday and Friday nights before bed, but that’s why you play. You want to be in these games.”

The Rams got out to an early lead on the opening drive just two minutes into the game when Baty threw a 23-yard pass to wide receiver Roman Runner. It was Runner’s eighth touchdown pass of the season.

A team that normally averages 511 yards a game, the Rams offense was held to their lowest yard total of the season with only 304 yards for the game.

The College of San Mateo football team is ranked second in the state this season for its defense.

“San Mateo played better defensively than I though they were going to,” Rush said. “We had opportunities to blow the game open but it didn’t happen.”

It took 28 minutes but San Mateo’s offense finally woke up as they scored twice on drives to close out the first half and open the second half when Bulldogs quarterback Miles Freeman ran 90 yards to set up a score and then passed for 54 yards to make the Rams trail for only the second time all season.

Despite being down in the fourth quarter, Rush said he thought his team responded very well in managing the clock.

During the game, Baty, who finished passing for only 267 yards, scored a touchdown and was sacked a season-high four times.

“They had a great defense and I was glad we found a way to pull it out,” Baty said. “In close games, mistakes happen. You have to bounce back and we did today.”

The Rams (8-0) will play their final regular season home game on Nov. 5 when they welcome Foothill College which lost its last two games to San Mateo and Santa Rosa.

“We have a goal and that is to become National Champions,” Baty said.

Kick off is at 1 p.m.