MOUNTAIN VIEW — It’s hard enough to stop a good team when you know who’s getting the ball.
When four different players take a snap? You could be in for a long night.
Woodside is turning heads early this football season with what the Wildcats are doing on the scoreboard, and when opponents aren’t able to figure out who has the ball, they haven’t been able to keep up.
The Peninsula school is now 2-0 this season after a 41-0 win at Mountain View, its second straight shutout after opening the year with a 44-0 win at Westmont. Senior running back Evan Frampton, who rushed for two touchdowns and handed off another to Daniel Torres, was the featured player in the Cats’ multifaceted offensive attack.
“It just sets the tone of the offense,” Frampton said. “We like to get downhill quick. We use a lot of misdirection. It takes a lot of practice, but it’s just reps. I work with the center a lot to make sure we’re on point with all that.”
He’s not the only one. Woodside used junior Charlie Dalrymple as its primary quarterback but also sprinkled in some snaps to sophomore JJ Lange.
Fullback James Yauch also took multiple direct snaps, feeding Mountain View a consistent diet of confusion.
“That’s a tough offense to prepare for in a regular week, three practices,” said Mountain View coach Rick Esparza. “It’s an unconventional offense that you don’t see that much anymore. You’re used to seeing spread offenses these days, and coach (Justin) Andrews does an awesome job running his single wing.
“We had a tough time in practice getting our scout team guys to run it and then stopping it at times. And when you see it at full speed, guys who are used to running it every single day make it very, very challenging. We couldn’t even find the ball at times.”
Andrews, a former linebacker at Oregon, knows how hard it is when defenders can’t locate the football. And he has a deep bag of tricks to make it as hard as possible for them.
“We have a pretty versatile attack and versatile run game,” Andrews said. “All of our skill guys can impact the game in different ways, and it just makes us really tough to stop.”
Mountain View (1-1) was feeling itself a little bit coming off a thrilling win against Palo Alto in Week 1. The Wildcats humbled the Spartans pretty quickly, jumping out to a 20-0 halftime lead and inducing a running clock in the fourth quarter.
“It was an amazing night, great for the program,” Esparza said of beating Paly. “We’ll remember that one for a long, long time, and when the season is over. I’m sure we’ll look back on it fondly. Woodside is a really good football team. They beat us up front, offensively and defensively. They just walked us back down the field all night long.”
Woodside got the scoring started with Frampton’s 21-yard first-quarter rushing TD, then added on with an 18-yard pass from Dalrymple to Juan Servin.
Dalrymple tossed another TD in the second quarter, a 24-yard strike over the middle to Daniel Torres, then Frampton kept the pressure on in the third quarter with a 4-yard scoring run.
Frampton handed off to Torres for a 3-yard score later in the third, and Lange tossed a 13-yard TD to Kolby Nelson early in the fourth quarter to start the running clock.
“A lot of misdirection,” Andrews said. “We blend the finesse with the smashmouth too. We like running downhill and taking it to the defense and then making you think we’re running downhill, and then we hit you with something else. It’s how the offense has evolved over the last few years.”
Woodside lost a standout running back in Evan Usher from last year’s team. Usher was a 1,000-yard rusher and the focal point for the Wildcats’ offense.
Related Articles
Why Campolindo was hardly satisfied with its victory over Northgate
Los Gatos rolls past Liberty behind second-quarter surge, captures first win of season
Big Bone game: Kyan Phillips has night to remember as Lincoln routs San Jose
High school football 2025: Friday’s Week 2 scores, Saturday’s schedule
North Coast Section commissioner Pat Cruickshank to retire in 2026 after seven-year tenure
It was reasonable to expect the Cats to take a step back in the backfield. But if anything, they’ve taken a few steps forward so far this season.
“We knew everyone had to step up,” Frampton said. “Usher was such a great player. He was a beast. He had such a big role. I knew I needed to step up. But I also knew that if we play complementary football, we spread the ball around, we get the ball in our playmakers’ hands and we win the line of scrimmage, we’ll be good.”
The Wildcats haven’t been good in the early going. They’ve been nearly perfect, and they look poised to contend after moving up to the Peninsula Athletic League’s Ocean Division this season.
“As good as Evan was, everyone knew we were gonna give it to him, and everyone loaded the box because of it,” Andrews said. “And it’s almost like with him gone, it opens up the offense a little bit more. They can’t really load up on any one guy or any one thing. We do a pretty good job of distributing and moving the ball around.”