The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.
College of San Mateo defensive tackles Nehamaiah Musika, middle, and Ezra Funa, right, celebrate a fumble recovery in the first quarter of the California Community College Athletic Association championship game Saturday afternoon at College Heights Stadium. The Bulldogs marched to a 43-11 victory over Mt. San Antonio College to claim its second state title in three years. Photo by Patrick Nguyen.
Once the game clock ticked down and the College of San Mateo Bulldogs began a long and vibrant postgame celebration after Saturday’s state championship victory, sophomore Soa Takeifanga scooped up a game ball and made a bee line for the College Heights Stadium grandstands.
Takeifanga hopped a barrier then ran up the signature steep stairs of the western concourse like he has hundreds of times. About halfway up, he found his mother, Low, handed her the game ball, then embraced her with a big hug.
“She asked me: ‘Whose ball is this?’” Takeifanga said. “‘I don’t know? I just found it,’” he teased, “‘So, I’m giving you the ball because I won state.’ This whole year and last year, it’s just to my parents and my family and my mom and them. So, I just gave her the ball … and told her: ‘I made it mom. I made it happen.’”
It was a well-earned moment after Takeifanga, a sophomore guard, was in the trenches for one of the legendary performances in the history of CSM football. The Sacramento native helped lay the groundwork for sophomore running back Lolo Mataele, and his epic 35 carries for 166 yards and two touchdowns.
CSM running back Lolo Mataele earned 3C2A Football State Championship game MVP honors, rushing 35 times for 166 yards and two touchdowns in the Bulldogs’ 43-11 win over Mt. San Antonio College, Saturday, at College Heights Stadium. Photo by Patrick Nguyen.
The fruit of Mataele’s labor? A 43-11 Bulldogs victory over visiting Mt. San Antonio College, as CSM captured its second California Community College Athletic Association championship in three years.
“He’s just a dawg,” CSM head coach Tim Tulloch said. “He embodies everything that our program is about. He’s tough, he’s humble, he gives every ounce of credit to … the guys that are blocking for him. And he’s special. He’s one of the best we’ve ever had. And in games like this, we just continue to lean on him. And you see what happens.”
There’s quite an advantage in the home field advantage, and Bulldogs seized on it. With this, their third straight trip to the state finals, CSM was looking for a reprieve of last season’s grueling 24-21 loss a long way from home at Riverside City College.
Well, they got it.
CSM hoists the state championship trophy for the second time in three years. Photo by Patrick Nguyen.
CSM (12-1) used three interceptions, a fumble recovery and a botched Mt. SAC punt that resulted in a safety to claim a decisive victory. With their 2022 CCCAA championship win, 55-0 over Riverside City, the Bulldogs have outscored their opponents in their two title wins by a cumulative total of 98-11.
With the two-year cycle for community college athletes, however, this was the first state title for most of the players on CSM’s 2024 roster.
“It’s something that we talked about all year,” Mataele said. “We were going to come and win state, and we did that. So, celebrating was the only right thing to do.”
‘DBU’ shines with three INTs
CSM defensive backs coach Omari Green has long earned the reputation of fielding stellar secondaries. Relying primarily on 1-v-1 man matchups out of his cornerbacks, and astute, downhill play out of his safeties, Green’s defensive backs, historically, form a fraternity long dubbed “DBU” — as in “Defensive Backs University.”
DBU put its stamp on the game early when, three plays into the game, sophomore safety Kalen Woods intercepted a Mt. SAC pass that overshot the receiver over the middle. It sailed right into the hands of Woods.
“I seen the quarterback open his hands — once I seen him open his hands, I knew I had to … come downhill and make a play. And he threw that ball right to me, and I made a play on it,” Woods said.
CSM safety Kalen Woods returns an interception early in the first quarter, the first of three INTs on the day for the Bulldog defense. Photo by Patrick Nguyen.
It was the first of three interceptions of the day for DBU. With CSM up 19-3 late in the first half, freshman cornerback RJ Whitten came up with his third interception of the year. In the third quarter, sophomore linebacker Malaki T’eo stifled Mt. SAC’s first possession of the half two plays in, picking off a wayward pass.
“The DBs, we’re all brothers,” Woods said. “We’re from all over the Bay Area. We all come as one, work hard, work on our technique every day. With OG, if it wasn’t for him, I’m not going to lie, there wouldn’t be no DBU.”
Jumping out to an early lead
Woods’ first-quarter INT set up the Bulldogs for a quick score. Starting from the Mounties’ 24-yard line, CSM handed it to Mataele for four of the five plays on the drive. After an 11-yard pass from Dominic Ingrassia to tight end Simon Mapa moved it to the 1, Mataele glided in to put CSM up 7-0.
Two plays later, Mt. SAC (12-1) turned it over again, this time fumbling a snap at its own 6-yard line. The Bulldogs had to grind it out, using four plays, but on fourth-and-goal from the 1, Ingrassia took a play-action bootleg run around the left side — with Mataele on the fake handoff doing a championship high jump over the line — and Ingrassia waltzing in to up the lead to 14-0 less than four-and-a-half minutes into the game.
“That’s a gutsy call, to go down there and run a naked keeper on that goal line,” Tulloch said. “It’s a gutsy call. He got the look that he wanted, called it, and that’s why he called the game the way he did. We play to win … and we’re going to be aggressive. And Mike did a great job of doing that.”
After the teams traded three-and-outs, the Mounties had a chance to get on the scoreboard, but a 44-yard field-goal try fell short.
CSM returned the kick to the 32 and quickly moved it across midfield. After the drive stalled, CSM sophomore Tashi Dorje’s punt had big implications. Dorje nailed down Mt. SAC at its own three. And when a third-down sack by T’eo pinned the Mounties to their own 1, the ensuing punt resulted in a safety when the botched snap dribbled out of the back of the end one to put the Bulldogs up 16-0 with 10:57 left in the half.
The Bulldogs got the ball back and blasted their way into field goal range. Freshman kicker Dieter Kelly cashed in, booting a 35-yard field goal to make it 19-0 midway through the second quarter. The Mounties replied with a field goal of their own, getting on the board with a 39-yarder from sophomore Matthew Fidone to send it into the half 19-3 Bulldogs, but not before Whitten made the play of the game for his team’s second INT.
CSM cornerback RJ Whitten rips a ball out of the hands of a Mt. San Antonio receiver for an interception late in the first half. Photo by Patrick Nguyen.
With just under two minutes left in the half, the Mounties moved the ball across midfield on a 16-yard scramble by quarterback Noah Fuailetolo. On the next play, Fuailetolo targeted freshman receiver Pierce Brown, and hit him right in the hands with the pass. Only, Whitten read the play the whole way, got airborne, and met the ball as it arrived on the spot to rip it away from Brown.
“My coach, he always told me to get my leverage and get a re-route,” Whitten said. “So, right when I saw the dude sit up, I broke on it, and the rest is [history]. … I just knew when the ball was up there, I had to go get it. It was my chance to show my team that I got them, and get the ball.”
Second-half, same as the first
CSM started the second half with the ball, and capped its drive with a rare miss from Kelly, who shanked a 41-yard field-goal attempt. But two plays later, T’eo put the Bulldogs back on the attack with an interception over the middle on a pass right to him.
“Shoot, I’m a defensive guy, and I don’t really get the rock like that,” T’eo said. “So, when that was coming right to me, I was like: ‘There’s no way.’”
T’eo returned it to the Mt. SAC 32 for Mataele to go back on the attack, carrying the ball three times on the drive to set up a 1-yard scoring dive by sophomore James Minot to make it 26-3.
CSM sophomore linebacker Malaki T’eo returns an interception early in the second half. Photo by Patrick Nguyen.
Mt. SAC got the ball back and got on the board with a 10-play, 60-yard drive, capped by a 2-yard scoring run by Samuel Green Jr. But that’s all the points the Mounties would get. CSM closed it out with three unanswered scores — an Ingrassia 4-yard scoring run to end the third quarter; a 37-yard scoring run by Mataele to start the fourth; and a 32-yard field goal by Kelly to put it to bed.
CSM outgained Mt. SAC 267-65 on a wind-torn but rainless afternoon on the Hilltop. Ingrassia was 10-of-23 passing for 80 yards, but added two TD runs to earn Offensive Player of the Game honors. T’eo finished with one of CSM’s six sacks to earn Defensive Player of the Game honors.
“The defensive game plan was lights out,” Tulloch said. “[Defensive coordinator Hansen Sekona, Coach Green], those guys had our kids so locked in. When we walked off the field Thursday, I knew. I knew this team was ready. They just had to go out and execute.”
For Takeifanga, so far from his Sacramento roots,, touching base after the game with his family — delivering the game ball to his mother — was an affirmation of buy-in of “leave no doubt” Bulldogs. In his two years in Bulldog blue, however, Takeifanga has found another family in the fraternity of CSM football. And that football family, he said, starts with Mataele.
“Lolo Mataele,” Takeifanga said. “We have a ‘Why?’ for every person here. Like: ‘Why do you do this?’ Lolo Mataele is always one of my ‘whys.’”
All those ‘whys’ (and all those hundreds of punishing stairs each CSM player runs more times than they care to remember) culminated in the ultimate prize Saturday, backed by 35 carries by Mataele.
“As long as my team’s winning, I’ll do whatever I need to do,” Mataele said.