2024 Turkey Day Game: Balboa Pounces on Lincoln 26-7 for the Championship

In their fifth consecutive matchup in the San Francisco Section/Academic Athletic Association championship game, Balboa beat Lincoln 26-7 at Kezar Stadium to take home the title in the 100th Turkey Day game in San Francisco.

After losing on three of the last four Thanksgiving games including back-to-back titles, Balboa won a sloppy one as the Buccaneers were able to pounce on the avalanche of mistakes that doomed Lincoln. 

From the start, it became apparent that the winner would be whichever team made less mistakes, as the opening score came from Lincoln moving up into the red zone on a muffed punt. 

Following the fumble recovery, Lincoln tried catching Balboa napping with some razzle-dazzle as junior running back Michael Washington took a halfback option throwing into the end zone. The ball was batted down by Balboa sophomore strong safety Santino Rubalcava, but was flagged for defensive pass interference, setting up a touchdown strike from Andrias Allanigue to Kevin Zhao who was all alone in the right corner of the end zone. 

After a nightmare beginning for the Buccaneers, the defense didn’t let Lincoln score the rest of the way, with the help of Lincoln themselves. 

Balboa responded after the muffed punt with a 54-yard touchdown. Quarterback Rylen Thien-Jones scrambled to his left, throwing it deep up the middle. It was short, allowing receiver Amar Jacques to come back to the ball, shaking off Mustangs cornerback Myles Hamlin to walk into the end zone. Lincoln maintained the lead because the kick for the extra point clanged off the goal post.

After Lincoln killed their drive with consecutive delay of game and false start penalties, they punted back to Balboa who quickly found their way in the red zone. The Buccaneers took a poorly timed delay of game penalty themselves so Balboa head coach Fred Velasquez called timeout to talk over a crucial third down play. 

The first play coming from the timeout, Lincoln cornerback Daveion Mcgehee picked off a jump ball on the goal line giving the Mustangs possession on their own 2-yard line. 

Immediately after getting a takeaway, disaster struck for Lincoln when Balboa’s Ramses Barrios picked up a fumble for a defensive score. Balboa’s two-point conversion was batted down at the right pylon, making the score 12-7. 

Once Balboa took the lead, they never gave it back as Lincoln’s offensive struggles were equally attributed to themselves as the Buccaneer defense. A barrage of penalties and turnovers either stalled or killed every drive until the clock expired. 

Despite mistakes snowballing for Lincoln, the Mustangs had the chance to take the lead at the end of the half as they marched down to Balboa’s 28-yard line with a minute left. Unfortunately on third down, Lincoln wasted a shot at the end zone by fumbling the snap. 

On fourth down as time expired, Allanigue took a shot targeting Syd Villegas who spun around the Balboa defensive back who was the last line of defense, but Villegas bobbled and dropped it with an empty end zone in front of him squandering a golden opportunity to seize the momentum and potentially the lead.

In the second half, Lincoln’s offense played just as good defense on themselves as Balboa did. 

Each Lincoln drive was a doom loop, cycling through overfeeding Washington who would get stuffed by a Balboa front that expected it, abandoning the pass, fumbling snaps, and the straw that broke the Mustangs’ back was repeated delay of game and false start penalties. 

Even when Washington would beat a defense who knew exactly what was coming with chunk runs, Lincoln never failed to shoot themselves in the foot by taking another penalty.

Lincoln’s most egregious mistake of the half was at the end of a third quarter where neither team could move the ball. Clinging to a one possession deficit, Lincoln gifted Balboa excellent field position because the punter accidentally had his knee down with possession of the football, negating his punt and giving Balboa the ball on Lincoln’s 28-yard. 

Quarterback Thien-Jones and standout running back Joseph Smith capitalized on an opportunity to step on Lincoln’s throat.

Thien-Jones showed off his athleticism by escaping the pocket, rolling left and throwing a dime to Smith who caught the ball and fell into the left pylon for a touchdown, but it was called back on an illegal receiver downfield penalty. 

Delay of game penalties reared its ugly head yet again forcing Balboa into an improbable fourth-and-goal situation from the 30-yard line. Velasquez decided to go for it anyways. Thien-Jones scrambled again, dropping a beautiful pass in Smith’s lap, just above the fingertips of Villegas extending Balboa’s lead to 13 points. 

Balboa executed in spite of penalties, whereas Lincoln compounded their problems with penalties.

Balboa sank another dagger through Lincoln’s heart as Jacques ran in a 33-yard touchdown, his second of the game, following an interception on Lincoln’s last gasp fake punt attempt. Lincoln’s last drive ended with another fumbled snap, this time Balboa falling on it. 

The Buccaneer sideline could feel all their hard work pay off with the excitement of a championship building. Teammates embraced one another, dapping each other up and celebrating within themselves. Coach Velasquez took time as Balboa lined up to kickoff the final time to pump up the Buccaneer crowd basking in the sunny side of Kezar on a beautiful Thanksgiving afternoon in San Francisco. 

In a game dominated by offensive penalties on both sides, the final delay of game penalty was likely the first time in Velasque’s career taking a penalty brought him joy, as it was caused by his team seconds away from a championship giving him a gatorade bath.  

As ice settled on Balboa’s 35-yard line, the officials let the clock run out clinching the championship for Velasquez’s Buccaneer program who enacted their revenge on Lincoln for getting the best of them the last two years.