A 28-0 halftime lead made certain Purdy – and the 49ers’ top-ranked defense —  would upstage Brady’s rare and perhaps final homecoming to his native Bay Area.

On the 49ers’ way to a sixth straight win, however, came trouble, in the form of Deebo Samuel getting carted off with an ankle injury, 5 minutes before halftime. It’s the latest, scary injury to a franchise that deployed Purdy as its third starting quarterback this season, a week after losing Jimmy Garoppolo to a potentially season-ending foot fracture.

Thursday night brings their next game, at Seattle’s daunting venue where they’ll face the Seahawks (7-6) to possibly clinch the NFC West crown.

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He tried to limit the lost yardage on a third-down sack, his left foot twisted underneath him.

That put a sudden halt to his season, not to mention the best four-game stretch of Garoppolo’s career, which has been interrupted by multiple injuries since he made his first 49ers start exactly five years and one day earlier.

“I saw him at halftime and it was pretty emotional.”

Garoppolo’s exit thrust rookie Brock Purdy into action, and Purdy responded with two touchdown passes in their win over the Miami Dolphins.

Where Garoppolo goes from here is, well, surgery.

“He broke a few things in there,” Shanahan said.

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Santa Teresa 30, Palo Alto 2

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McClymonds 49, Lemoore 35

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Grant-Sacramento 36, El Cerrito 7

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Bellarmine 35, Vanden-Fairfield 21

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San Ramon Valley 19, Marin Catholic 17

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Santa Clara shined using a similar system and gave a top program quite a push.

Hannah Jump scored 19 points with four 3-pointers, Kiki Iriafen added 16 points, and the second-ranked Cardinal held off Bay Area neighbor Santa Clara 82-69 on Wednesday night.

Fran Belibi contributed 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench as the Cardinal (9-1) won their fourth straight game since falling 76-71 in overtime to top-ranked South Carolina on Nov. 20.

“We’re playing a lot smarter,” Belibi said. “All of our guards are making really great decisions and we’re not really getting as many offensive fouls and those types of turnovers. I think that really helps us.”

Jump made four of eight 3s but Stanford finished just 6 for 22 from long range. Haley Jones added 14 points, 11 rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals.

Olivia Pollerd scored 19 points with five 3s to lead scrappy Santa Clara (5-4), which had won three straight and four of five and hung tough with a top team in the country. The Broncos hit 13 3s and moved the ball well.

“When you make mistakes defensively they just make you pay,” Santa Clara coach Bill Carr said. “I think that’s the biggest thing we’re going to learn from tonight is when you go into a game and you have a game plan, you’ve got to try to stick with it for 40 minutes.”

Broncos freshman Tess Heal, one of four Santa Clara players from Melbourne, Australia, has earned West Coast Conference Freshman of the Week honors in as many offerings of the award so far this season. She had a tough night.

The 5-foot-10 guard shot 3 for 11 for six points facing a taller defender while Lara Edmondson scored 12 for Santa Clara, which was coming off a 71-58 win Saturday against previously unbeaten Washington to go undefeated at the Las Vegas Holiday Classic.

The Broncos’ reserves scored 23 points and Santa Clara matched Stanford on the boards until late in the third.

“We didn’t defend the 3-point line as well as we needed to,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “… I think there’s things that we can learn and we can do better and we’ll have to do better against Gonzaga.”

Iriafen made 5 of her first 6 shots as Stanford began 7 for 12 but the Cardinal then hit a stretch missing seven of eight and Santa Clara grabbed a 19-18 lead on Lexie Pritchard’s 3 with 32 seconds left in the first quarter.

TARA’S POISE

VanDerveer has received only three technical fouls her entire 44-year Hall of Fame career and she remembers each one of them vividly to this day — one at Idaho and two during her 37 seasons at Stanford.

She picks her moments and always has.

“One in Alaska, I was the coach at Idaho, they called over and back and we didn’t play over and back, that wasn’t our rule. And I pointed that out and they didn’t like me to point that out. I got one at Stanford early on down in UCLA,” she recalled before the game. “And I got one I went on the court because Candice (Wiggins) got clobbered. I just was worried about Candice. I went out right on the court, I was like, ‘She got clobbered and I’ve got to go find out how she is.’ Our players don’t get technicals either. I don’t want to lose a game by two and be blaming myself.”

BIG PICTURE

Santa Clara: The Broncos had won the previous meeting in a 61-58 upset on Stanford’s home floor Nov. 23, 2015. Before that, the Cardinal had won seven straight in the series. … Santa Clara couldn’t establish a transition game and scored no fast-break points.

Stanford: Stanford committed just eight turnovers and held a 44-37 rebounding advantage. … The Cardinal won for the 14th time in the last 16 vs. Santa Clara and lead the all-time series 30-5 — and 16-3 at home.

UP NEXT

Santa Clara: Hosts Oakland-based second-year program Lincoln University on Friday night.

Stanford: Hosts a second straight WCC opponent when No. 23 Gonzaga visits Sunday afternoon before the team’s two-break for final exams ahead of a Dec. 18 home date with Tennessee.

The Associated Press story by Janie McCauley

___

AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

A portion of all ticket sales will benefit Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation. Yamaguchi, the East Bay native who won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating, is quoted on the foundation’s website as saying, “Always Dream is now focused on building awareness around the importance of in-home reading and on empowering low-income families with the tools necessary to level the playing field.”

The rink will be open daily from noon to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekends through Jan. 8 at City Center Bishop Ranch, 6000 Bollinger Canyon Road in San Ramon. According to their website, purchasing online tickets for the 90-minute sessions is highly recommended as same-day tickets are subject to availability. For ticket prices and more information, visit www.citycenterbishopranch.com/ice_rink_open.

The memories the players built during a 16-match season this fall won’t soon be forgotten.

They hugged, smiled and cheered one another on, using American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate as their coach and 2016 graduate of the school, Farrah Harmount, led the way.

The team’s roster included Shaelyn Johnson, who does it all. In addition to volleyball, she plays basketball and softball, cheerleads and was named Homecoming queen.

• MORE: CSD’s football team more than the sum of its wins, losses  

CSD opened in 1860 in San Francisco, moved to Berkeley nine years later and has been at its current location — a 91-acre campus in Fremont — since 1980.

The volleyball team finished 4-12 overall and 3-7 in its league this season.

But as the Eagles line up in formation and prepare for the kickoff, fingers are flying, hands are waving, signals are soaring.

Throughout the season, the team is communicating, fast and furiously, and also, mostly, silently. They are deaf, but for them, deafness isn’t a disadvantage. It’s a superpower.

“We don’t need to have codes because the other team doesn’t know what we’re saying,” says Herminio Gonzalez, head coach of the football team at the Fremont campus of the California School for the Deaf. “The players always know what’s going on, especially if they grew up with a strong deaf culture.”

• MORE: CSD’s girls volleyball team brings hugs, smiles to court

The school boasts a storied program. Last year, the Eagles’ sister team, the Riverside Cubs, barreled their way through a historic season that made headlines around the country, inspiring an honorary Super Bowl appearance and a Disney+ series. Seven years earlier, ESPN featured the team as part of its E60 series and showed one of its games live on ESPN2 in 2016.

Win or lose on the field, and this year there’s been more losing than winning, the Eagles are a team built on brotherhood and sharpened by camaraderie and a shared purpose.

“You have friends in class, but this is a deeper connection. Nothing can beat it,” says Bodhi Amann, 17, a senior from Fremont who plays multiple positions, as do many of his teammates.

California School for the Deaf, or CSD as it is often called, was established in 1860. Its sprawling 91-acre campus is filled with colorful murals, championship banners and, of course, a football field. The Eagles play eight-man football, with a 27-man squad that rotates between offensive and defensive positions.

The team ended the season this month at 4-6 (2-4 in league play). But for every loss, Gonzalez also sees a gain.

“I love to see the kids growing, making sure they’re committed and focused and persevering,” the coach, who is also deaf, says in American Sign Language (ASL). “We’re like a family the way we support each other. I feel like they’re all my sons.”

Gonzalez, who was born in Puerto Rico, fell in love with football after moving to Miami as a child. His 26-year career coaching deaf teams took him to Fremont in 2016. He takes in stride the challenges of coaching in a hearing world.

“One difficulty is communicating with the referees. A hearing team can just yell at them during the middle of a game, but I don’t have that option,” he says. “I have to wave and sometimes get someone next to me to help.”

Nearly 80% of the CSD staff is fluent in ASL. It’s a commitment the boarding school makes to prepare its students, some who enroll as toddlers, for life after school.

“Our goal is for our kids to feel empowered,” Superintendent Clark Brooke says. “In mainstream schools, they don’t have interpreters during lunchtime or for after-school activities. Here, they have someone to talk to from the moment they wake up until they say good night.”

For Bodhi, the school has made a significant difference. “I feel so lucky. There are only two deaf schools in California, so there are a lot of students out there who are deaf and are just stuck,” he says.

Bodhi’s teammate and fellow senior Daniel Fuentes, also 17, used to feel that way before enrolling at CSD in 2012. “I grew up in L.A., and I used to go to a mainstream school, but I didn’t look forward to going into the classroom. I had a hearing teacher who would just talk, and I didn’t understand,” Daniel says.

“So we decided to move here, and I was just amazed. I found a lot of friends who had similar experiences to me and I started to learn more. It’s been the best experience of my life.”

He looks out for some of those friends as a linebacker. One of them is Adrian Ruiz, a 17-year-old San Mateo senior, who says he’s “so thankful for the brotherhood” at the school and on the team. “CSD has benefited me in every way. They helped me figure out who I am as a person.”

On this year’s Senior Day, proud parents and coaches celebrated the team’s seniors and cheerleaders. There were posters, photographs and, for the Dingel family, homemade T-shirts.

Heidi and Nathan Dingel, both CSD alums, have a long family connection to the school, and there was no question about where their four children would go, including football players Jaden and Jaxon.

“Being deaf, it’s like we’re in our own bubble. The reality is that it’s a hearing world, and people don’t include us,” Heidi says. “I tell my kids that they have to learn to communicate with everyone. They get tired. They say that kids only want to learn the funny signs, but I want them to learn that if they want to talk to someone, they have to be assertive.

“Find your identity, understand how to communicate, and once you’re out in the real world, it’s easy. It all starts here in this school.”

The decision can be harder for those who live farther away and for parents who are not part of the deaf community.

Johnte Haggins Jr., a 17-year-old running back and linebacker, is the only member of his immediate family who is hard of hearing. His parents, Johnte Sr. and Christine Haggins, live in Sacramento and sent Johnte to CSD in the eighth grade.

“He was in a public school before this, and it was OK, but it didn’t really fit him. He wanted to come here, and when he did, he fell in love with it,” Johnte’s father says. “It was scary at first. We live two hours away. But we got to see all of the activities and programs that they run here, and it’s just great.”

Their son’s athletic and social abilities weren’t the only things to improve.

“We noticed a tremendous growth in his schoolwork. … He stopped being frustrated and was able to complete things. He just grew. It was amazing to watch,” Christine Haggins says.

Lorie Steven, who lives in Redding, feels the same. Her son Brendin, a 17-year-old senior kicker, transferred to CSD two years ago. “As Brendan got older, life got a little harder, and he was struggling a lot. I had heard about CSD so mentioned it to him, and he decided to come here within minutes, and he’s the best he’s ever been,” she says.

As she finishes speaking, the Senior Day celebrations come to an end. While this year’s football season didn’t always go the way the team hoped, the lessons they’ve learned on and off the field will stick with them for life.

Garoppolo was 19-of-28 for 240 yards, and the 49ers’ armada of offensive talent eventually came through with play after play, leading to Christian McCaffrey’s touchdown for their first lead, with 7:54 to spare in an eventual 22-16 win.

Credit also goes to the 49ers’ defense for preserving that lead, never mind that the Chargers (5-4) valiantly fought all night without their top three wide receivers, their left tackle and their best defender, the latter being Joey Bosa, brother of 49ers’ defensive star Nick Bosa.

The 49ers (5-4) now sit a half-game out of the NFC West lead, behind the Seattle Seahawks (6-4).

Next up is an extended road trip to face the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night in Mexico City. But first, the 49ers will acclimate to high-altitude conditions in Colorado Springs, Colo. from Tuesday through Sunday. Their Mexico stay will last just one night, as they’ll fly out after that game, which could inflate their NFC West record to 4-0 with a win.

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Team Black played Team White with each team having about 10 players plus several Sharks players. Team Black acquired Sharks’ Logan Couture and Matt Nieto while Team White drafted Sharks’ Timo Meier, Nico Sturm and Steven Lorentz. Lead by Team White’s Louis Manson’s hat trick, Team White was able to pull off a 5-4 win. Team Black pulled their goalie late in the third and despite several close calls was not able to get the puck past Team White’s goaltender Jason Jacquez.

New head coach David Quinn donned a referee shirt and whistle and officiated the game, even tossing Sharks mascot S.J. Sharkie in the first period after Sharkie took a dive. Sharks broadcasters Randy Hahn and Dan Rusanowsky kept the gym lively while doing the play-by-play for the small crowd in the Bellarmine College Preparatory gymnasium.

Sharks employees dotted the gym, including five Sharks assistant coaches, host Emily Harlan and organist Kevin Seal. The team donated 120 custom Special Olympics and Sharks co-branded jerseys to outfit three Santa Clara County Special Olympics Floor Hockey programs.

The Sharks Foundation and DGDG will also donate $10,000 to Special Olympics Northern California to go towards program costs and new equipment for the floor hockey teams.

The free festival attracted people from throughout the Bay Area with the website claiming over 100,000 people have attended in past years.

Dia de los Muertos — also known as Day of the Dead — is a Latin American celebration of one’s deceased ancestors or loved ones. Altars are built in tribute to the departed, often decorated with photos, gifts, flowers, food and drink.

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