Bonita Football: Bearcats Never Quit in Dramatic 26-20 Win Over Los Altos

No. 5, Codey Sykes and No. 2 Deron Holmes are high stepping after Sykes scored the game winning touchdown on a 29-yard pass completion from Bonita quarterback Evan Highley.

Instead of setting up for a 36-yard game-winning field attempt, Bonita’s strong-armed quarterback Evan Highley went to the air one last time, finding wide receiver Codey Sykes for an 18-yard touchdown to give the Bearcats a hard-fought 26-20 win over Los Altos on Friday night.

Highly and Sykes had been on the same page all night. Of the 266 yards Highley gained through the air, on 17 of 25 completions including two touchdowns and two interceptions, Sykes was on the receiving end of 168 of those yards, including 7 receptions, but none more important than the last two when Bonita began its game-winning drive on its own 18-yard line with 1:46 trailing 20-19.

Having advanced the ball to its own 46-yard-line, desperate to beat the clock with no time-outs remaining, Highly found Sykes down the left sideline for a 33-yard completion. Sykes adjusted to the flight of the ball, twisting one way, then turning another, before hauling in the ball and going out of bounds at the 21-yard-line.

On the game-winner, Sykes wrestled his way out of the arm tackle of his defender who was trying to keep Sykes in bounds, but the attempt failed as Sykes sprang free into the end zone.

“He’s been doing it all season long,” Bonita head coach Eric Podley said. “He’s been a key player for us; he works hard, and he saw the results of that hard work pay off tonight. He was our hero.”

Reminded that Highley had thrown two interceptions over the course of the game and that setting up for a field goal might have been the safer percentage play,” Podley said, “You have to have a short memory in this game.”

Had the fateful last seconds produced a different outcome, Podley, whose team came in with only win, joked that he might have been looking more seriously at his retirement and golfing options. “The win was helpful,” Podley said.

Nothing has come easy for the Bearcats this season, but on Friday night Bonita bounded to a 13-0 against Los Altos on the strength of two Highley field goals, measuring 37 yards and 24 yards, and a 9-yard-touchdown run by Deron Holmes. Highley’s first field goal drive was aided by a 30-yard pass deflection that Sykes caught, an early sign that he and Highley would be locked in all night.

Bonita’s first touchdown drive started on the Los Altos’s 30-yard line set up by a huge fumble recovery from outside linebacker Derrick McCanless. Bonita’s second field goal was courtesy of Garrett Horine’s midfield interception, the first of two on the night for the sophomore. Bonita drove the ball to the three yard marker before electing to boot another field goal to go into the locker room leading 13-0 at the half.

Bonita's defense, led up the middle by, from left, Nick Pichotta, Daniel Harriman, Derrick McCanless and Tyler Cortez, got the ball back for the offense for the final winning drive.

Los Altos finally got it going in the third quarter, perhaps energized by the school’s homecoming activities. Receiving the ball to start the second half, the Conquerors marched from their own 20 to the Bonita 12-yard line before the drive stalled out with a missed field goal. After a Bonita punt, Los Altos put together its best offensive series before quarterback Justin Zamano tucked the ball under his right arm and scored on a keeper. With the extra point, Bonita led 13-7 at the end of the third.

Taking over on its 20-yard-line, Bonita fumbled the ball away on a bad pitch in the backfield. Seemingly seconds later, Los Altos struck again for a high-looping pass in the left corner of the end zone, which, with the extra point, gave the Conquerors a 14-13 lead in the fourth quarter.

With 10:54 remaining in the 4th quarter, Bonita moved the ball out to the 37-yard line on a drive that began on its own 24. Then Highley and Sykes connected for a long completion that took the ball all the way to the Los Altos 10-yard line, aided by a roughing the passer call. Then on third down and goal from the 17-yard line, Highly found wide receiver Matt Gelalich in the right corner of the end zone for six points. Bonita missed the two-point conversion, but the celebration was on, with Bonita leading 19-14.

The party was short-lived, however. On the ensuing kickoff, Ryan Longoria streaked down the left sideline with a 91-yard touchdown run, putting the Conquerors back on top, 20-19.

In the next offensive series for Bonita, Highley threw his second pick on the night, and it appeared it would a homecoming for Los Altos to remember. Only Bonita didn’t quite buy in. After surrendering a couple of first downs, bending but not breaking, the defense handed the ball back to the offense, albeit not with the best field position (first and 10 on its own 18), but that was more than enough, it turned out, for Highley, Sykes and company to get the job done.

Thoughts of golf, retirement, etc. are on permanent hold. Bonita’s in the hunt for a playoff berth after one of the most resilient and remarkable wins in school history.