SARATOGA — John Harris doesn’t consider himself to be one of the leaders on the College of San Mateo football team.

But he was clearly the Most Valuable Bulldog on Saturday. The free safety finished with three interceptions as CSM held off host West Valley 34-21 in a spirited non-conference game that was much closer than the final score indicated. The Bulldogs (4-0), ranked No. 4 in the state, needed every one of Harris’ spectacular defensive plays to pull out the victory. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound sophomore picked off a Kiel Trudeau pass and returned it 22-yards for a touchdown to give the Bulldogs a 10-7 lead with 6:46 left in the second quarter.

At the time, the CSM offense was struggling, West Valley had the momentum and the Bulldogs desperately needed a spark. Harris gave his team one, and then some. Harris’ second interception came with the Vikings (2-2), ranked 17th in Northern California, driving deep into CSM territory at the end of the third quarter. Harris saved his best for last. Despite leading from the second quarter on, the Bulldogs were in danger of suffering an upset after their offense stalled in the red zone, culminating when Gil Hernandez’s 26-yard field goal attempt went wide right.

West Valley got the ball back trailing 27-21 with 3:14 left. After a 7-yard completion and an incompletion, Trudeau completed a 23-yard pass to set up a first-and-10 from the 50-yard line. Harris intercepted Trudeau’s next pass at his own 35 and returned it 48 yards to the West Valley 17. Like a hawk in search of prey, Harris waited patiently for the play to develop before going in for the kill. Two plays later, Ryan Faumuina ran over left tackle for a 4-yard touchdown with 57 seconds to go to seal the outcome.

“I was watching the quarterback’s shoulders and trusted my defensive backs so I could make a play,” Harris said. “You’re always going to have adversity, and you have to fight through it. I’m not a leader, but we needed someone to step up and make a play.”

Said CSM coach Larry Owens: “We don’t win this game if John doesn’t make all of those plays. He’s athletic, he’s got good range and the played the situations right.”

Harris wasn’t the only Bulldog to make plays. Faumuina was a beast, finishing with 158 yards on a workmanlike and career-high 35 carries. Hernandez proved crucial, converting field goals of 32 and 46 yards, the latter giving the Bulldogs a 27-14 lead with 8:12 remaining. The Bulldogs’ other scores came on Jose Avina’s 23-yard TD pass to Shaman Thompson and Avina’s 1-yard scoring run in the third quarter. After blowing out their first three opponents by a combined margin of 115-26, the Bulldogs finally met an opponent that exposed them in every facet of the game.

Trudeau and wide receiver Shamarr Prentice repeatedly burned the CSM defense, hooking up eight times for 193 yards. Trudeau completed 20-of-39 passes for 268 yards, and Terry Newsome had over 200 yards of kick return yardage, often resembling an NFL return man against CSM’s shoddy special teams coverage. Owens had a conversation with some of his friends from the San Joaquin Delta coaching staff afterwards.

“They said you won so be happy,” Owens said. “But other than getting the win, I don’t know what else to take good out of this. I was bothered by our play, because we’re just not being consistent. There are a lot of things that need to be corrected. We got exposed last week to be honest, but this game was evident that we’re a long way where we need to be. West Valley did a good job of creating situations to get us on the defensive. We needed something like this to wake us up a little bit. Hopefully, through all the trials and tribulations we went through today will help us in the long run.”