The varsity football team suffered a crushing 56-0 defeat at Marin Catholic on September 24.  Although the game seemed relatively even in the first half, Tam turned the ball over five times, the most ever under head coach Jon Black.

The most notable factor in this loss occurred when senior Tre’chaun Berkeley left the game early after injuring his knee on a run.  With Berkeley sidelined, the Hawks were at a huge disadvantage as their running game had been the main focal point heading into the game.

“We kinda worked [Berkeley] back into our offense,” Black said. “He went out the first time we ran the ball, and when your number one guy is out, [we] couldn’t stick to our plan.”

The scalding temperature of 85 degrees was also a large factor in this game and wore down the Hawks to a level lower than what Coach Black expected.

“I think we just had too few guys that weren’t able to play at a high level in this type of temperature for four quarters.” Coach Black said.  Numbers were also a factor, as Marin Catholic has twice as many players as Tam does, meaning fresher players who can come in and give 100 percent at any time.

It also didn’t help that Marin Catholic’s starting quarterback Spencer Petras threw for four touchdowns and ran for one, contributing to 35 of Marin Catholic’s 56 points.  Tam also lost a fumble and threw a pick-six within the middle of  the second quarter.

Despite Tam’s loss, there was some hope for the future of the teams’ quarterbacks.  Sophomore Cooper Carroll took over the quarterback position for junior Jackson Moore and led Tam’s largest drive of the game with a minute left in the first quarter. Carroll and the Hawks marched down to the five yard line before throwing an interception into the end zone, bringing an abrupt end to the promising drive.

“The playcalling was good, the [offensive] line did a good job pass blocking and we got a few timely penalties,” Carroll said.  “[I] Wish we would’ve converted at the end, but that was probably our most successful point of the game.”