Photo by Aaron Crutchfield - Atascadero’s Nick Jackson looks up the field for more yardage during the Greyhounds’ 35-14 loss to St. Bonaventure on Friday.

After three interceptions and a shanked punt that went for negative-two yards in the first half, the Atascadero High School varsity football team only trailed defending California state champion St. Bonaventure by a score of 15-6.

But in the second half, the Greyhounds attempted to give the Seraphs a steady diet of running back Nick Tenhaeff, who St. Bonaventure was effectively keeping bottled up, while the Seraphs used a few big plays to put the game out of reach en route to a 35-14 win over the host Hounds.

“I think it’s just we weren’t all here today,” said Atascadero fullback and linebacker Trevor Holloway, who played despite injuring his knee in practice earlier in the week. “We have a much better team than we showed tonight; our team is way better than what we showed. We have capabilities beyond measures. It just wasn’t our night tonight.”

Early on, things looked good for the Hounds, as the defense kept St. Bonaventure out of the end zone on the game’s first drive and the 37-yard field goal try was no good.

Tenhaeff broke off an 11-yard run on the Hounds’ first play from scrimmage, but an interception on the second play killed the drive. St. Bonaventure then scored on a 45-yard touchdown pass on a broken play and made the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead 5:33 into the game.

Another interception ended the Hounds’ next drive, but St. Bonaventure was forced to punt on the ensuing drive. Atascadero quarterback Brad Smet’s third pass attempt of the game was tipped on third-and-five and went for the third interception of the game.

The Seraphs ended up turning the ball over on downs on the next drive, but the Hounds could get nothing going on the ground and the backup punter shanked the punt, giving St. Bonaventure the ball on the Atascadero 23.

It took the Seraphs three plays to drive that 23 yards, with the extra-point kick good for a 15-0 lead with 9:09 left in the first half.

The Hounds were able to get something going on the next drive, helped immensely by a personal foul penalty against St. Bonaventure. Smet completed two passes on the drive, including a 12-yard touchdown pass to Mike Lombardi with 1:57 left in the second quarter to bring the score to 15-6.

“They’re just a very good football team,” AHS coach Vic Cooper said. “We had trouble getting much of a push against them, and the mistakes we were making on offense were killing us. We were lucky to only be down 15-6 at halftime. I felt good in that sense. We needed to come out and operate effectively on offense in the second half and we didn’t.”

The Hounds got the opening kickoff and were driving mainly on the strength of a pass to Tenhaeff for 22 yards. The Hounds moved 28 yards on that drive, with zero of those yards on the ground. Tenhaeff was given the handoff on fourth-and-one and was stopped for a three-yard loss, giving the Seraphs possession on their own 41-yard line.

It took two plays for St. Bonaventure to score, with USC-bound Patrick Hall running 54 yards down the sideline to paydirt. Although the Hounds were able to stop the two-point conversion try, the Seraphs held a 21-6 lead.

After the Hounds were forced to punt again, St. Bonaventure had a 35-yard passing play on the next drive to set up a 13-yard touchdown pass, with the extra-point kick good for a 28-6 lead with 3:13 left in the third quarter.

The Seraphs scored again with 5:21 left in the game for a 35-6 lead, sending a good portion of the crowd to the exits.

On the ensuing drive, the offense found life in the Smet to Alex Wolf connection, as Smet completed a 23-yard and seven-yard pass to Wolf. After a pair of incompletions, Smet found Wolf again for a 26-yard touchdown pass with 4:05 left in the game. Smet then found Tenhaeff for a two-point conversion pass to pull to within 35-14.

But it was too little, too late, as the Seraphs were able to milk the clock the rest of the way.

Tenhaeff was held to 23 yards on 10 carries in the second half and the Hounds as a team rushed for 28 yards after halftime. Meanwhile, Smet was 7-for-13 for 86 yards in the final two quarters, with five of the pass attempts and 56 of the yards coming after the final St. Bonaventure score.

“I think you’ll find we probably threw more than we did last week,” Cooper said. “I have confidence in Bradley, but they have a lot of good athletes. Last week we’d run that route and we’d make that break and it would be open and we’d complete it, and next time, he makes that break and there’s a kid that’s going to [the University of] Oregon next year that steps in front of it.”

With the loss, the Hounds are now 1-1 on the year.

“We showed we can hang with them for a little bit,” Cooper said. “But they’re good; there’s nothing else I can say about it. The inability to get the ball going on offense is really what slowed us down today.”