And it ended, strangely enough, on a night of many great runs for the Homestead football team.

The Mustangs lost a 47-34 heartbreaker to Menlo-Atherton in the finals of the Central Coast Section (CCS) Division 2 playoffs last Saturday night at San José City College.

The loss brought the Homestead season to a disappointing end, but it certainly wasn't a disappointing season for the Mustangs. In fact, quite the contrary is true.

"It was unbelievable," said head coach Charlie Bostic of his club's spectacular 10-3 season. "Homestead has never gone this far before [in the football playoffs]. I'm really proud of these kids."

"Nobody figured we would do much in the playoffs," added the coach, "especially since we were coming from a B league."

But Homestead is no longer a B league team. After winning the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division championship this fall with a 6-0 record, the Mustangs are moving up to the De Anza Division for the 2003 season.

They've proven they can play with the caliber of teams they'll run up against in the A league. The Mustangs knocked off two of the four De Anza Division teams on their regular season schedule, then beat two more A teams—Oak Grove and Piedmont Hills of the Blossom Valley Athletic League's Mt. Hamilton Division—in the playoffs.

And Homestead darn near won a CCS championship but came up a couple of touchdowns short in a scoring free-for-all last Saturday.

The Mustangs and Bears were trading touchdowns at an incredible pace that left Homestead leading 34-27 at the half last weekend. But Homestead couldn't score in the second half, and Menlo-Atherton scored three more times to pull out the victory.

"We were great in the first half," said Bostic. "We just couldn't get into a rhythm in the second half."

Will Faules starred for the Mustangs in the first half, carrying the ball nine times for 240 yards and three touchdowns. But the Bears closed him down in the second half, and he finished the night with 244 yards on 14 tries.

"He was doing an unbelievable job—he did it all season for us," said Bostic. "But they made an adjustment and shut down our trap in the second half."

That was just one of the problems Homestead faced in the game. Speedster Ramont Thomas, a two-way starter at running back and defensive back, was injured in first-half action and couldn't return to the field after intermission.

"That hurt us," admitted Bostic.

The coach didn't comment on them, but there were also two crucial calls by the line judge that led directly to two Menlo-Atherton touchdowns. A pass interference flag on a big M-A fourth-down pass inside 20 gave the Bears new life and led to a second-quarter touchdown two plays later, and a non-call on an obvious offensive pass interference penalty allowed an M-A score in the fourth quarter.

For the first two periods, the Mustangs and Bears were locked up in a real scoring fest.

A 14-yard pass from Craig Maynard to Garren Strong and a 20-yard run by Faules set up Brian McGee's 20-yard touchdown run, which capped an eight-play, 67-yard drive to open the game.

Menlo-Atherton answered right back four minutes later, but then Homestead scored again. Faules went up the middle for 50 yards to give the Mustangs a 12-6 lead.

The Homestead defense stopped the Bears on key plays by Richard Scott, Keith Moll and Eddie Sumpter; then Faules went to work again. The speedster broke a trap 74 yards up the middle to make it 18-6.

The Bears marched for a score on a drive kept alive by the pass interference penalty on a play that appeared to be a clean bust of a fourth-down pass. But once more the Mustangs came right back.

Faules took one up the middle 64 yards to the end zone, and Maynard tossed to Strong for the 2-point conversion to make it 26-13.

M-A took the lead for the first time, scoring two straight times to move in front 27-26.

The second of the two TDs came with just 23.9 seconds left in the half, but that was more than enough time for McGee to get Homestead the lead back. The quick kick returner picked up the kickoff on a bounce on his own 15 and raced 85 yards for a touchdown. Maynard went to Strong for the 2-pointer, and the Mustangs led 34-27 at the break.

The Bears tied it with a touchdown in the third and took the lead on a touchdown pass in the fourth, where the receiver clearly pushed off Strong to get open. But the official kept the flag in her pocket, and M-A managed to get the lead for just the second time during the night.

The Bears came back with an insurance score later in the game, and the Mustangs never threatened again.

Homestead didn't really threaten at all in the second half. After running up 291 yards in the first half, the Mustangs were held to just 52 yards in the final two periods—and only 23 on the ground.

Faules was the offensive leader with his 244 yards rushing. McGee supported with 35 yards on eight carries, had a catch for 15 yards and had the 85-yard kickoff return.

Maynard hit on four of nine passes for 43 yards, but he was intercepted three times late in the game. Strong had three catches for 28 yards.

Leading the Mustangs to the 343 yards of total offense in the game were tackles Chris McKim and Mike VanOrden, guards Moll and Tyler Jordan, center Greg Ariza and tight end Jay Smith.

The offensive standout in the game was sensational M-A quarterback T.C. Ostrander, who hooked up on 25 of 32 passes for 303 yards and five touchdowns.

Anthony Morales and Moll were the defensive leaders with 12 tackles apiece. Moll had a quarterback sack. Steve Conti, Artur Gregorian and Sean Carey were in on seven tackles each, and Conti and Gregorian were each in on sacks.

Scott and Jeff Tucker had six tackles apiece, Strong and Sumpter each had five and VanOrden, Faules and Daniel Sizemore had three each.

Chad Talley recovered a fumble, and Mike Madrigalli, McGee, Thomas, Jordan, Eric Dodge and Robert Scott were also in on tackles.