The Menlo varsity football team suffered a brutal 42-3 loss to Menlo Atherton (M-A) on Friday, Oct. 12th. Menlo went into the game with an immediate disadvantage, having a mere 20 players on the roster, while M-A had 53 players on their team.

The Knights matched up against the Bears at their homecoming game, in front of one of the biggest crowd this season. The game started off with a relatively strong performance from Menlo on defense, but with four minutes left in the first quarter, junior starting quarterback Kevin Alarcon went out of the game with a collarbone injury. Junior defensive end Justin Sellers replaced Alarcon at quarterback for the rest of the game. M-A scored on a rushing touchdown, and senior captain Dillon Grady brought the game within four points with a 33-yard field goal to end the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Menlo struggled as M-A shut them out 28-0. The Knights were unable to convert vital third downs and complete crucial passes. M-A’s junior quarterback Jack Alexander threw four touchdowns and 189 yards in the second quarter as the Bears broke away. The Bears also had two interceptions in the second quarter. In the play immediately following M-A’s second interception, Alexander threw a 65-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Malik Johnson on a fly route as the M-A crowd erupted in cheer. The Knights headed into the locker room at halftime without their starting quarterback and 19 healthy players, facing a 35-3 deficit.

In the second half, Menlo Atherton ran the ball and managed to score one more touchdown while still shutting out Menlo. The Knights’ senior wide receiver Kevin Chen had an average of 10.5 yards per catch for a total of 42 yards. However, Menlo Atherton’s defense continued to penetrate the line to sack the quarterback for a loss of yards 7 times throughout the course of the game.

Despite the loss, the team leaders have a positive outlook as they move into homecoming week where they will be playing Terra Nova High School on Friday, Oct. 19th. “We fought until the end and that’s all we can ask for. We never felt bad for ourselves even when we were down and just kept playing for the brother next to us,” junior wide receiver and safety Jaden Richardson said. Richardson thinks the team can move forward and succeed in the coming weeks. “We learned from it and are ready to kill it at homecoming,” he said.