SANTA FE SPRINGS – After losing its Angelus League title game in heartbreaking fashion last week to Cathedral, the St. Paul football team looked to put its deflating loss behind as it took on Thousand Oaks in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs on Friday.
Instead, the Swordsmen succumbed to another gut-wrenching loss, falling to Thousand Oaks 14-10 after running back Joseph Laffere was tackled 5 yards short of the game-winning touchdown as time expired.
Thousand Oaks advances to take on El Modena in next week’s quarterfinals.
St. Paul head coach Mike Moschetti said to blame him for the loss.
“We had a chance. It’s something you work on, you run your two-minute drill every day,” Moschetti said. “Something like that shouldn’t happen, but again that falls on me as a head coach.”
Swordsmen quarterback Gabriel Castaneda ran for a team-high 76 yards and completed 11 of 28 passes for 123 yards.
Moschetti praised his quarterback’s effort despite facing some injuries throughout the game.
“Our quarterback was banged up. He battled through it and made plays when he had to,” Moschetti said.
Thousand Oaks limited St. Paul’s star running back Marley Luatua to just 34 yards, though Luatua scored the Swordsmen’s only touchdown.
It couldn’t have started worse for the Swordsmen on offense. St. Paul had back-to-back three-and-outs as the Swordsmen had no answers for what Thousand Oaks was doing defensively.
“(We) played well defensively. Couldn’t get into a rhythm all night offensively,” Moschetti said. “Between personal fouls, turnovers, and penalties, you’re not gonna win a game.”
Defensively, St. Paul took a bend-don’t-break approach as Thousand Oaks took its opening possession of the game down to the Swordsmen 17-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
Thousand Oaks drove down the field relatively quickly again after getting the ball back in St. Paul territory after the Swordsmen went three-and-out on offense.
The Lancers got inside the red zone for a second time, but disaster struck again for the Thousand Oaks offense as Lancers’ quarterback Jackson Taylor threw an interception to Josiah Laffere.
Once again, the Swordsmen couldn’t capitalize, going three-and-out.
Taylor and the Thousand Oaks offense put it all together and finished a drive with an 18-yard touchdown strike from Taylor to Hayden Vercher with 9:25 left in the second quarter.
The Swordsmen responded with their best offensive drive of the game and answered with a touchdown when Luatua walked in from 3 yards out to tie the game, 7-7, with 4:33 left in the first half.
Once again, Thousand Oaks drove and got deep into St. Paul territory, but Lafferre picked up his second interception, which gave the Swordsmen a huge momentum swing toward the end of the half.
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St. Paul kicker Jesse Riperto nailed a 40-yard field goal as time expired to send the Swordsmen into the half with a 10-7 lead.
The teams exchanged possessions throughout the third quarter until Taylor found Carson Lewis for his second touchdown completion to put Thousand Oaks back on top 14-10.
The Lancers would shut out St. Paul for the remainder of the second half, including coming up with huge stops on fourth down to seal the game.