photos by Ethan Swope

The varsity football team beat Justin Siena 50-21 on October 22 in a game that sparked a brawl in the fourth quarter, resulting in the ejections and one game suspensions of senior Tre’chaun Berkley and junior Tristan Mitchell and no Justin Siena players. Berkley had scored the game’s final touchdown, but he was pushed back an additional 10 yards by Justin Siena defenders.

Berkley and Mitchell missed the following week’s game at Terra Linda, which Tam lost 28-14. During the Justin Siena game, Tam’s offense scored their second most points in a season game.

The first quarter started strong for Tam, allowing one touchdown but scoring three themselves. Kicker, sophomore Sam Uriarte’s extra point attempts were successful all three times. In the second quarter, Tam allowed another touchdown, but scored one themselves, with the addition of two field goals. Going into halftime, the score was 34-14 in Tam’s favor.

The third quarter was Tam’s slowest, allowing one more and final touchdown from Justin Siena after a long throw by the quarterback but only scoring three points from a successful field goal bid by Uriarte with under a minute left in the quarter. After being outscored in the third by Justin Siena, Tam headed to the fourth with a healthy lead nonetheless, 37-21.

Tam scored two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The first one was the result of a 64 yard run by junior Jackson Moore with ten minutes remaining in the quarter. The second was scored by Berkley and prompted the brawl after he was pushed back 10 yards following the touchdown. With one of two extra points in the quarter successful by Uriarte and no more scoring from Justin Siena, the score would stop at 50-21.

Head coach Jon Black spoke highly of the team’s performance against Justin Siena with the exception of the incident in the fourth quarter. “They performed well at all levels except for the dust up,” he said. “I think that the referees were slow to react and he just lost his composure for a moment. [Berkley] is a great young man who is polite and respectful and his actions don’t reflect what a fine individual he is on and off the field.”