Menlo’s varsity football team throttled Palo Alto High School 49-6 on the road Friday night, earning its second league win of the season and improving to 7-0.
On the opening kickoff, the Knights recovered a fumble, and senior running back Chuck Wynn punched in a touchdown a few plays later.
On Menlo’s next drive, senior quarterback Jack Freehill waltzed into the end zone for the first of his two rushing touchdowns on the day. Senior wide receiver Jackson Flanagan connected with sophomore JayAr Davis on a Philly Special-esque trick play for the two-point conversion, giving Menlo a 14–0 lead.
Menlo kept its foot on the gas in the second quarter. After Freehill ran in his second score, he connected on a deep ball with his top target, senior Trevor Van Der Pyl, for an 82-yard touchdown.
Paly struggled to find offensive consistency, but junior quarterback Justin Fung completed a 30-yard pass to senior Kevin O’Brien late in the half to get the Vikings on the board.
On the very next play, Van Der Pyl returned the kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown, extending the Knights’ lead to 35-6 at halftime. “I saw three guys unblocked and I thought about running out of bounds, but I knew I wouldn’t be in the game in the third quarter, so I had to make my reps count,” Van Der Pyl said.
Menlo cruised in the second half. Davis and junior running back Merrick Ward each tacked on touchdowns.
On a separate note, the Knights were missing several starting linemen to start the game and took another huge blow when star senior defensive end Palmer Riley went down with a shoulder injury in the first half. He did not return. “We’re really banged up and it’s getting really hard,” head coach Todd Smith said. “We may need to have some JV players help us.”
Next Saturday, the team faces Los Gatos High School at home. Last October, the Knights were blown out by Los Gatos 38-0 and will look to avenge that loss.
“Paly definitely isn’t Gatos,” Van Der Pyl said. “We have a ton of stuff we need to clean up, but if we can put up points […] we’re gonna have some pretty good confidence going into that game and make sure it’s not a repeat of last year.”
