Bishop O’Dowd’s Varsity football team played Tamalpais High for their season opener at home on August 30th. After a tough loss last year to the Tamalpais Red-Tailed Hawks, the Dragons wanted revenge.
“This is our game to win, and we need to take it to them,” said Salou Sow 25′.
The football team at Bishop O’Dowd has high expectations both from the media and as a team in 2024, the year of the Dragon. Heading into the season, the Dragons were looking forward to a rematch against Tamalpais High School, hungry to “get their get back.”
The previous season, the team fell short against Tamalpais on the road, losing 21- 27, but this year, the Dragons were set to flip the script and protect their home field, the “O,” in week 1.
Before kickoff, the Red-Tailed Hawks placed their team flag on the sideline and stood in the middle of the O’Dowd logo, trying to assert their dominance on O’Dowd’s home turf.
Rather than responding with their words, the Dragons responded with physical and excellent play during the game.
“We wanted to talk back to them, but our coaches told us to play with our helmets and shoulder pads,” recalled defensive end King Marr 26’.
Bishop O’Dowd’s stellar performance began with the defense. They forced a safety, two fumbles, two fumble recoveries, many tackles for losses, and a scoop and score by Gio Joaquin 26′.
“Scoring for the first time at O’Dowd was an unreal moment because it was our first game of the season, and playing defense, that doesn’t happen much,” said Joaquin 26’, “We were already up by a few touchdowns, so defensively scoring put a seal on the game and made a statement to Tamalpais.”
The Dragons held the Tamalpais offense to less than 100 rushing yards and a little over 100 passing yards. Overall, the defense was lights out all game, only allowing 13 points to be scored.
On the other side of the ball, the Dragons were unstoppable. Quarterback Devin Wilson 25’ threw for 190 yards and two touchdowns to wide receivers Jaren Beene 25’ and University of Washington commit Deji Ajose 25.’
Saliou Sow 25′ had a monster performance, rushing for 151 rushing yards and scoring two rushing touchdowns, putting the Tamalpais defense on their heels. Running backs Oliver Lehner 27’, and Princeton commit John Teti 25’ also contributed to the Dragons’ blowout win by each having a rushing touchdown. The offense was rocking, and the balance was found in rushing and passing the ball down the field, showing off the versatility and explosiveness of this Dragon’s offense.
After completing their comeback against Tamalpais High School, the Dragons look forward to continuing to dominate on both sides of the ball.
Already, the Dragons are putting O’Dowd football back on the map, as Adrian Soriano of the 49ers Cal High Sports Report podcast recently deemed them a sleeper team to look out for. With the Dragon flag being raised at home Friday Night, the team is young and promising, looking poised to make a deep run in the playoffs and win the WACC league.
“Bishop O’Dowd football is trying to prove all the articles and all the news sources wrong. We’ve worked really hard this summer to make sure we have a wonderful season,” said Sow 25’, “We are here just trying to shock the world.”
