Moon Walks Into Field of Craters

He can tell by their eyes. They have nothing more to give him.

Mike Moon, who plays fullback and linebacker for Santa Clara High, returns to the huddle, gathers himself for another play and finds his linemen dirty, beaten and fighting for a breath.

“Sometimes they don’t know where they’re at,” Moon said of his overmatched teammates. “They say your linemen are supposed to help you up off the ground, but I usually have to help them. A person can only take so many hits.”

Moon, 5 feet 7, 170 pounds, is familiar with sudden impact. Last season, he separated his shoulder against Rio Mesa, an injury that, combined with the asthma attack he suffered while shivering on the sideline, hospitalized him for five days and kept him out of three games.

In a rematch against Rio Mesa a week ago, Moon suffered a bruised kidney and blacked out on the field from exhaustion. He was briefly hospitalized and is listed as doubtful for Santa Clara’s game Saturday against Bishop Diego.

Santa Clara (0-3) has won one game in past two seasons, but Moon, who has rushed for 283 yards and made 33 tackles, can hardly wait to get back in the lineup.

“Some of our guys barely have enough to make it to the locker room after a game,” said Moon, who is among seven Saints to start both ways. “But guys like that are the reason I stayed.”

Several of Santa Clara’s top players transferred after last season. Running back Andre Pinedo went to St. Bonaventure. Quarterback Adrian Maciel left for Oxnard.

Moon nearly joined the exodus, but he reconsidered after a few of his teammates made emotional appeals.

“I don’t know what it was, but I wanted to stay at Santa Clara,” Moon said. “The whole football system’s screwed up, but all my friends were here. Something told me it wasn’t right to leave.”

Two years ago, Moon was a member of a Santa Clara junior varsity team that won the Frontier League title.

“We beat everybody,” Moon said. “We weren’t that talented, but we had a good coach and we could tackle and work together. Now we’re not into it and we don’t have enough guys. We get tired.”

Santa Clara has only 25 players on the varsity.

“We try to tell [the players] to keep their heads up and look forward to next year,” Santa Clara assistant Kevin Sherry said.

But that mantra does little to inspire Moon or the team’s 11 other seniors.

“Santa Clara’s tried to rebuild every year I’ve been there,” Moon said. “I don’t mean to down the program, but I don’t think it will be any better next year.”

For the remainder of this season, Moon will continue to hurl himself at players bigger, stronger and better-rested than himself.

“You learn to run where there’s no holes, to be a true fullback and create our own,” Moon said. “Usually I have to run into the pile and that’s when you get hurt like I did.”

Moon has a 3.4 grade-point average in honors classes, bench-presses more than 300 pounds and is determined to play football in college.

His injuries and Santa Clara’s losing have not diluted his passion for the game.

“Playing is still fun,” Moon said. “We may not be the best team, but we’re all out there and trying our best.”