El Camino wins Bell, snaps South City's streak at 14

If history proves a kind judge, the 57th Bell Game on Saturday will not be remembered by HOW it ended, but by WHAT it ended.

For the first time since 2003, El Camino defeated South City High in the annual rivalry, buoyed to a 41-15 margin by five Javion Tarusan touchdowns. The win ended a 14-game losing streak by El Camino, which has freshmen on campus that had not been born the last time the Colts won a Bell Game.

But, as sometimes happens in rivalry game, emotions ran high -- a little too high. Officials ended the game early, expressing their dismay with seven fourth-quarter personal fouls by symbolically walking off the field with 2:36 left on the clock. It was an anti-climatic finish to a game that the Warriors had led at the half.

“I’ve never seen it,” said El Camino coach Archimedes Junio. “It’s a rivalry game and there were a lot of personal fouls, but a seven-man crew walking off the field because of a taunting penalty is pretty outrageous. The last thing they did was they pointed at the scoreboard and walked off.”

Tarusan was the hero in El Camino’s win, scoring two touchdowns on kick returns, two on interception returns, and one receiving.

“Amazing. I don’t remember anything like that,” Junio said. “He’s been doing that all year, leading us in touchdowns, leading us in interceptions, everything.”

Tarusan, a junior captain, said the win would hopefully start a new streak.

“We’ve just got to keep it there (at EC) for years, just like South City had it,” he said. “For the next 14 years, the next 30 years, we’ve just got to keep it.”

The final score did not reflect the back-and-forth nature of the first half. The Warriors got on the scoreboard first, with a 43-yard field goal by Nelson Ramirez capping an eight-play opening drive, which was the only score of the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, Tarusan worked the first of his magic: first fumbling, then picking up a South City punt and taking it through the approaching Warriors line 60 yards to put the Colts up 7-3 after the extra point.

“It was my blocking,” Tarusan said. “I saw a hole and i just ran through and I ended up with a touchdown.”

After a trade of punts, South City got a big play when Frank House, well… took it to the house, taking a Demetrius Gutu pass 75 yards up the left for a touchdown with 5 minutes left in the second quarter.

How long did it take El Camino to respond? About the 14 seconds it took Tarusan to pull the ensuing kickoff down at the six and run 94 yards up right for another Colts touchdown. EC led 14-9 with 4:46 before halftime.

Two minutes later, Noel Elasia burst through the middle for a 21-yard touchdown run for the Warriors. Although South City could not convert the two-point PAT try, its defense did have a three-play goal-line stand on EC’s next drive and led 15-14 going into the half. When El Camino running back Jonas Junio was injured early in the second half, there was some trepidation on the Colts sideline.

“I was nervous, but I knew that with the adjustments we were going to make, we’d be OK,” Junio, the coach, said regarding the feeling he had when Junio, the player (and coach’s nephew), went down.

There indeed was no real need to worry, as El Camino scored four unanswered touchdowns after the break. The first came on the same series Jonas Junio was hurt on, as Tarusan pulled down a 24-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Noel Valdez and carried it 24 yards for a touchdown. The Colts, or rather, Tarusan stopped South City’s next drive with a 90-yard interception return when the Warriors threatened the red zone.

Senior running back Ivan Pineda scored on a three-yard rush midway through the fourth quarter to cap a long El Camino drive, then Tarusan stopped the Warriors’ next drive with a 51-yard pick-six interception.

“Right before that play, this guy targeted me and it just fired me up,” Tarusan said. “I had to go out a play, I came back in and got the pick-six. It was just destined.”

The loss capped a tough year for South City, which finishes 0-10 under first-year coach Jerome Lee. The Warriors tallied 195 yards on the ground, led by Elasia, who had 16 carries for 102 yards. Romeo Alapati added 67 yards on 12 carries. Gutu completed 7 of 19 yards for 149 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions.

El Camino finishes 4-6 under first-year coach Archie Junio. The Colts tallied 102 yards on the ground, paced by 60 yards on 13 carries by Jonas Junio prior to his injury. Valdez completed 9 of 11 passes for 105 yards.

“This is amazing,” coach Junio said, savoring the win. “We’re trying to change the culture of this whole rivalry and we’re trying to do the right things. I’m just so glad it happened on my first year here.”

Below: Halftime entertainment from the South City Spirit Squad and the teams shake hands at the end of the game.

In defense of high-density housing near SSF BART

(There are proposals to build housing on a vacant lot down the trail from South San Francisco BART station. The fact that some alternatives promoted by potential developers are up to 15 stories tall has upset many residents. Here, resident John Baker makes a plea for more housing on the location.)


South San Francisco is an older city, and I’m not talking about the fact it recently celebrated its 107th anniversary.

What I mean is that it is a community where the median age of a resident has risen from 26.8 in 1970 to 38.1 in 2010 as home-owning adults aged in place and younger people moved away to start families in more-affordable locales. In fact, South San Francisco has almost 3,500 fewer school-aged kids than it did when I was born, despite the city’s population increasing by more than 20,000 in that time. (Note, I’m talking the physical existence of children, not just enrollment in our public schools.) Families increasingly cannot afford to stay in this city.

That’s why meaningful housing construction, like the proposals for homes on the former SFPUC location just south of the South San Francisco BART station, are important for South City’s future.

I recently completed a seven-year stint as a commissioner on the South San Francisco Public Housing Authority. I’ve seen the damage done to families by a housing supply that is far short of demand: runaway rents, soaring housing costs, and an influx of money that is both directly and indirectly leading to displacement of some of our most vulnerable. The waiting list for our Public Housing is so long that the Authority won’t even quote wait times. The waiting list for a Section 8 voucher is long as well, and good luck finding a landlord that will accept one.

We have a profound need to increase housing supply. I think many people in South City agree on that. However, some people say, “I support more housing, but this is not the right place.” To me, this location is the absolute best place to build housing on the Peninsula: Hundreds of units, up to 160 of them affordable, literally right next to a BART station and a heavily used bicycle/pedestrian path, right next to the Peninsula’s longest street, and within blocks of schools and grocery stores. It will be adjacent to what will soon be the newest, most advanced-technology library in San Mateo County. This is the place.

There’s reasonable discussion to be had as to how tall these buildings need to be. I’m guessing we initially had proposals of up to 15 stories because developers realize they will likely be trimmed down to seven (which is how tall the tallest new proposals appear to be). They didn’t ask for seven, because then it would be trimmed down to four. Personally, I think we need far more publicly subsidized housing – not just BMR housing. But anything a project in this location can do to help our supply is appreciated.

I’ve heard or read many of my neighbors says something to the effect of “No one asked for this,” Well… (raises hand) … I’m asking for this.

• I’m asking for this because I don’t want wetlands and farms in the Central Valley turned into blacktop.
• I’m asking for this because I do not want any more homes on San Bruno Mountain. Or on landfill in the Bay.
• I’m asking for this because helping people get homes, or at least having homes for newcomers so those current renters are less likely to be displaced, is the right thing to do.

The single-most meaningful challenge for our younger generations will be climate change. Building high-density infill housing near transit is an impactful way to meet our state’s ambitious climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent of their 1990 levels. The days of the super-commute have to end. And, I would suggest, if cities want to ensure people in such buildings actually take mass transit, reduce or eliminate parking minimums for such projects.

I’ve read residents online complaining that “The Hillsboroughs of the world aren’t building their share of housing, so why should we?” To me, that’s like asking why I have to sort my recycling from the trash if my neighbors don’t. We should make sure there’s more housing, even if some of our neighbors don’t because we’re more ethical than them. We’re more environmentally conscious than them.

And finally, the leadership of this city is more responsible for the mess than them. The predecessors of the current city council promoted policies that created thousands more jobs than housing units between 2000 and 2010. And you know what? Downtown South San Francisco is more active, our streets are a little cleaner, and extra policing has made our gang problem less acute. But — and I’m not saying this is unique to South City by any means — we have fallen behind on our responsibilities to keep housing supply and demand balanced.

So I am asking the City to build this. The more units, the better. Please.

John Baker is a former chair of the South San Francisco Public Housing Authority and current trustee for the South San Francisco Unified School District. This essay is his own opinion as an individual and not necessarily representative of any organization of which he is a part.