OAKLAND, CA Ð SEPTEMBER 02: Jaivian Thomas (21) of McClymonds rushes past Brandon Broch (33) of Bellarmine to score a touchdown in a high school football game at McClymonds High School in Oakland, Calif. on September 2, 2022. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Bay Area News Group)
OAKLAND – Tayshon Clayton had run himself out of the play, and for a brief moment it looked as if Bellarmine backup quarterback Parker Threatt was going to gash McClymonds for another big run in overtime.
But instead of giving up, Clayton fought to get back into the play and ended up punching the ball out of Threatt’s hands. Senior Gregory Kenny jumped on the ball and clinched the 24-21 overtime win for the Warriors.
“We had a blitz going, but I saw him going the other way,” said Clayton, a junior defensive back. “But I kept going and hit him and it popped out.”
On a night when the late Bill Russell, a civil rights icon, 11-time NBA champion and McClymonds alum was honored, it was only fitting that the game between Central Coast Section and Oakland Athletic League powerhouses turned into a defensive struggle. There were turnovers, hard hits, injuries and stilted offenses in a game that took almost three hours to finish.
“I just told my guys to keep fighting, and we knew that Bill Russell, my mom and everybody looked over us and didn’t let it go the way it could have gone,” McClymonds coach Michael Peters said after the game.
McClymonds controlled the first half, scoring twice on long touchdown runs by senior running back Jaivian Thomas to take a 21-7 lead into the break. His first was an 80-yard dash down the right sideline, and his second was a 48-yard scamper in front of the Bellarmine team.
“He’s that boy, he’s like that,” Clayton excitedly said about Thomas. “You can’t stop him, and teams are gonna have a long year playing against him.”
In between these highlights was a Bellarmine 30-plus yard touchdown toss off play action from senior starting quarterback Nate Escalada to junior receiver Colin Lakkaruju, and a McClymonds touchdown bomb from quarterback Deontae Faison to fellow junior Tajir Golden.
McClymonds’ defensive line, which went at least seven-deep, was stout all night. If the tenacious 6-2, 275-pound junior Charles Adams didn’t get to the ball, then edge-rushing seniors Joshua Shankin, Jaysen Cole or any number of his other teammates would. Bellarmine’s ability to move the ball in such conditions became even more difficult after Escalada was knocked out of the game late in the second half.
“All summer, they were in the weight room,” Clayton said. “They work hard and they can’t stop working hard.”
Without their starting quarterback, Bellarmine’s defense was up to the task after they fell behind 21-7. Linebackers Brandon Broch and Ben Coulter repeatedly stepped up to confront Thomas, who ran for 180 or so yards but rarely found easy gains outside of his two early explosions. And with six minutes left in the third quarter, Jake Hanson returned a blocked kick over 70 yards for the score to cut the McClymonds lead to seven.
“I don’t think our offense helped out our defense at all, and it was quite clear that our defense kept us in the game,” Bellarmine coach Jalal Beauchman said. “We have some special pieces, and once we figure out how to put it all together, we’ll be OK.”
The fourth quarter was a horror show for those who love offense. With four minutes to go in the quarter, Bellarmine fumbled the ball away to the Warriors. But then McClymonds gave the ball right back. After that was a torturous drive downfield by the Bells, who were kept alive by Threatt runs and a number of infractions by McClymonds.
“We knew the guy who came in liked to run the ball,” Peters said about Threatt, the Bells’ backup quarterback. “But he still came in and did some great things for the other team.”
Threatt, a junior, helped the Bells cap off that drive with a 12-yard fade pass to senior Wilson Pimentel for a touchdown with 35 seconds on the clock. When McClymonds got the ball first in overtime, the offense got close enough to allow kicker Isaac Espinosa to kick a short field goal. Then Clayton’s big play closed out the game and gave McClymonds their first win of the season.
“I love having schools come down here, because we’ve been breaking that barrier down over the years, and showing that we’re equal to the other teams (in the Bay),” Peters said. “I think that over the last few years, making the state championship games, that has opened some doors for us.”
