On Friday night, September 12, the San Rafael Bulldogs pulled off one of the best wins in years. The team went on a 20-0 rally to finish off Tam High School in a stunning overtime victory under the lights. They have started the season strong at 3-1 and are looking for more. This was the first time since 2010 that the Bulldogs have beaten Tamalpais High School and the coach, Casey Sully, is a large force in this newly found team success for San Rafael. Coach Sully hopes that this win against his former team is just the latest piece of evidence that SRHS football is a serious force in Marin County football. Their intense practice with quick pace playing has allowed the Bulldogs to stay in the competition and catch their opponents off guard.
Coach Sully has now been the head coach for four years and has brought this team together. He started coaching when the current seniors were freshmen, and has been working to help them grow into who they are. The San Rafael Bulldogs fell to a tough defeat against Tam in a 14-12 loss during Sully´s first year in 2022 and now, three years later, the opportunity to play circled back and the team pulled off the long awaited win. The San Rafael Bulldogs fell to a tough defeat against Tam in a 14-12 loss during Sully´s first year. Sully talked about his game plan coming into this year’s game and says they were confident as a team. “There was a lot of self-belief and knowledge that we’re capable and we have a good team and this is the fourth year with me being here so the freshmen when I came here are now seniors,” Sully says. “I’ve been in the program for four years and they know the system and they know the expectations and it just felt like we’ve been building for this moment and this opportunity for a long time.”
The team had been conditioning all week and playing fast paced, tempo offense so they can make the defense tired and challenge the defenders. Sully reflected on going into half time, how they never gave up and knew that their offense was doing good, “we just weren’t finishing in the red zone and it was going to come in that second half.” He knew that Tam would be tired and sensed the Bulldogs had been conditioning and preparing for the game he knew in the second half it was SR’s time.
“We saw that they were a little bit thin on both sides of the line, we knew, regardless of what the score would be, we’d have an opportunity at the end to wear them down, and I think we saw that,¨ says Sully. “They put up 14 in the first half, but they didn’t do anything in the second half, and we started to move the ball well, and gave ourselves an opportunity to win at the end.” Sully says. Sully talks about his success each game and scoring is trying to do a lot of RPOs, a run past conflict, where either Rio’s getting the ball on the handoff or Will’s getting the ball on the throw.
“That’s effort, that’s intensity, that’s consistency at practice.” He explains how the team was supported by their ability to keep competitive energy and helps them be conditioned for each game during the season.
San Rafael’s quarterback Lachlan Royston had a spectacular game. He started the season with 1,040 passing yards and 12 touchdown passes in just the first 4 games.
Tam had the lead for much of the game, up 14 to nothing, until Royston hit junior wide receiver Will Healy for an 8-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. This brought the Bulldogs to their first score of the game. Royston completed 27 passes against Tamalpais High School with 278 passing yards and 3 touchdowns, One of which was a 63-yard passing touchdown to Will Healy. to get the game to 12-14. Lachlan Royston’s two-point pass to Fondanzio gave the Bulldogs a tie game with little time left in the game. Will Healy had all 3 of the touchdowns for the Bulldogs with 162 yards. The Bulldogs running back was also a huge help to the victory on the ground. With just 27 carries, Junior running back Rio Johnson added 127 yards playing a huge effect in keeping the defense off edge. By overtime, it was clear that San Rafael wanted the win. The tension was high, and their energy was static. The Bulldogs knew from the start of the game that they had the power to secure their much-wanted win. They were hungry, and looking for the chance to strike.
One of the teachers at San Rafael High School talks about the game. Catherine Healy, a football parent, her son being Junior wide receiver Will Healy, and a 25-year teacher at San Rafael High, says that she has been watching the team for over two decades. “I have been watching football at San Rafael for a long time now and this was the second best game in 20 plus years,” Healy says. “It was an incredible game.”
