SAN MARCOS -- The San Marcos High football team got a wake-up call on Friday night.

One week before the Knights open Valley League play, they lost to Clairemont 16-14 on a 35-yard field goal in the third quarter by Steffan Mos.

"This game might even work in our favor," San Marcos coach Pulu Poumele said. "Bottom line, this was a good team with a good back and obviously we need to go to work."

The Knights (2-2) had trouble moving the ball in the first half, totaling only 49 yards compared with the Chiefs' 208. San Marcos finished with 170 total yards compared with Clairemont's 289.

The Chiefs (3-1) scored two touchdowns in the first quarter. Senior running back Steven Okidi rushed 32 times for 183 yards and both scores.

The lone bright spot for San Marcos was Matt Meyer's 80-yard return of a blocked field goal for a touchdown late in the second quarter.

"I just ran as fast as I could," said Meyer, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound defensive lineman. "I just saw the end zone and ran."

It seemed as if the touchdown was just the spark the Knights needed after the dismal first half. Â

"They were fired up," Poumele said. "That gave us some life at the end of the half."

The Knights' next touchdown came on the opening drive of the second half, an eight-play march that culminated in Ryan Cochrane's 1-yard touchdown. Cochrane put San Marcos ahead for the first time with a 2-point conversion.

Cochrane, who rushed for 100 yards in each of the first three games, ran for 78 yards on 20 carries.

"We just didn't execute in the first half," he said. "We got started late. The same thing happened last week. We can't let that happen."

The Knights doubled their yardage total on the first drive of the second half. On the ensuing kickoff, however, the Chiefs ran the ball back to the 22-yard line. After two plays for negative yards and a 6-yard run by Okidi, Clairemont kicked the eventual game-winner.

"We aren't playing around," Okidi said. "Everybody thinks we are a joke. We aren't, and we are coming out."

The field goal was from the same distance where San Marcos attempted a kick on its first drive of the game, only to see it go wide.

"I think this is going to open our eyes up," Cochrane said. "We need to get started earlier and keep our head on a swivel."

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