High School

Vanderbilt-bound Mike Mitchell helps Archbishop Riordan turn tables in emotional WCAL win over Serra

Three touchdown passes from Mitchell, big 4th-quarter TD run by Jeremiah Jones helps turnaround 46-point loss to Padres in 2023

Mitch Stephens

Riordan 2026 QB Michael Mitchell is a Vanderbilt commit who has thrown for nearly 6,000 yards and more than 60 touchdowns in his first 26 starts. Saturday he threw for three more touchdowns in a 27-21 win over Serra. This photo was from last year's 53-7 loss at Serra. | Photo: Eric Taylor
Riordan 2026 QB Michael Mitchell is a Vanderbilt commit who has thrown for nearly 6,000 yards and more than 60 touchdowns in his first 26 starts. Saturday he threw for three more touchdowns in a 27-21 win over Serra. This photo was from last year's 53-7 loss at Serra. | Photo: Eric Taylor / Photo: Eric Taylor

One nightmarish afternoon in 2023 was largely wiped away with one gratifying victory for the Archbishop Riordan football team Saturday in San Francisco.

Vanderbilt-bound quarterback Mike Mitchell threw three touchdown passes and rugged senior running back Jeremiah Jones rushed for a key fourth-quarter TD leading the host Crusaders to a 27-21 West Catholic Athletic League win over Serra.

Serra dominated Riordan 53-7 last season. This was just the fourth win for Riordan over Serra since 2004 and it broke a streak of eight straight Serra wins, with the Crusaders last beating the Padres 66-45 in 2015.

Riordan improved to 5-4 and 4-2 in WCAL play, while Serra, the three-time defending Northern California Open Division representative at State, dropped to 4-5 and 3-3. Both teams have one more WCAL game and will be scary opponents in the Central Coast Section playoffs.

Two key Mitchell scrambles, one going for 26 yards, set up a 3-yard touchdown pass to Wesley Winn with 10 seconds left in the half to tie the game at 7-7 and apparently give the Crusaders huge momentum in the second half.

Touchdown passes of 16 yards to Jacob Dubriwny and 45 yards to Cynai Thomas gave Riordan a 21-7 edge entering the fourth quarter.

Nano Latu, who opened the scoring with a 15-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, closed the gap to 21-14 with 10:14 left in the fourth quarter when he took a screen from senior quarterback Andrew Heneghan and raced 80 yards for a touchdown.

Jones answered with a 21-yard touchdown with 7:26 remaining, but the extra point missed, making it 27-14.

Once again, the Padres closed the gap to a single score game when Heneghan found tight end Clay Hinsdale on a 22-yard touchdown with 5:10 remaining.

Football photo; high school football; San Mateo, Californi
Serra senior tight end Clay Hinsdale had a 60-yard catch setting up a touchdown in the St. John Bosco's 56-17 win at Tom Brady Stadium on 9/14/2024. On Saturday, Hinsdale caught a 22-yard TD pass to close the gap to 27-21 before Riordan ran out the clock. / Photo: Dennis Lee

But the Crusaders were able to run out the clock from there.

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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

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