The Tamalpais high school football team lost 14-7 to Northgate High School in the season opener at home Saturday. Despite the loss, the Hawks showed promise. The first play of the game was a tackle for loss by Tam junior Sam Goldberg which was followed by a quick turnover on downs that gave Tam favorable field position, but they were unable to get points. With one minute left in the first quarter Northgate was deep in Tam territory. The Northgate quarterback tried to throw a pass, but the ball was tipped up into the air and senior Miles Kelsey swooped in and made the catch for the interception. Tamalpais lacked offensive production for much of the first half, but that quickly changed after senior Timo Ural came up with an acrobatic 30-yard catch. 

Towards the end of the half, Northgate had the ball on their own 15-yard line when their quarterback completed a short pass. After breaking a tackle, the receiver had nothing but open field ahead of him and it looked like he was bound to score, but, from the other side of the field, junior Streeter Holt chased him down in a footrace and made a leaping tackle at the 6-yard line. After Holt’s hustle, Northgate still punched in the first score of the game after the Northgate quarterback found an open receiver in the end zone. At halftime the score was 7-0 Northgate. 

At the start of the third quarter senior Cole Kramlich laid a massive hit on Northgate quarterback while he was in his throwing motion, popping the ball out and Goldberg recovered, giving Tamalpais amazing field position on the 5 yard line. After a bad snap on 2nd down, Tam was not able to capitalize on the great field position keeping the score 7-0. 

Tam was down 14-0 with 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Junior quarterback Henry Tuttle connected on two passes with receivers Ural and Kramlich to bring the team to first and goal on the 10-yard line. The very next play Tuttle found Ural for the touchdown to make the score 14-7. After that Tam forced a fast three and out via good defense from senior Wyatt Leach on third down forcing an incompletion. Tam got the ball back with four minutes left. Ural received the punt on their own 10-yard line and took it to the house, but was called back due to a holding penalty on the receiving team. Northgate closed the door on Tam with an interception late in the fourth quarter.

 “We made a lot of mistakes on offense, but the defense had our back, which I think going into the rest of the year it will be good to hang our hats on,” Tam head coach Anthony Mejia said. “(Senior David Keane) along with our defense kept us in a good position the entire game.” Mejia said, “(Keane) is a weapon for sure.” One of Keane’s punts traveled 69 yards. For reference, the average NFL punt is around 50 yards. Tam hopes to bounce back next week at home against St. Ignatius.