After a 0-4 start to the season, the St. Francis football team has won back-to-back league games, beating Archbishop Mitty Friday thanks to running back Motu Keanaaina’s touchdown with 11 seconds left.
Keanaaina went off with an apparent injury on the Lancers’ winning drive but came back in for the final play. Keanaaina punched it in from the one-yard line to get the win and finish the game with a season high of 130 yards rushing on 20 carries.
“When the offensive line keeps doing their job – it’s really easy to run behind them,” Keanaaina said.
The 20-19 win over Mitty (4-2, 2-1) earned St. Francis (2-4, 2-1) its first win at Ron Calcagno Stadium this season.
The Lancers found themselves down early, but head coach Greg Calcagno was proud of his team for battling back from a deficit. They gave up two passing touchdowns from Mitty quarterback Joseph Engin on the first two drives from the Monarchs.
Touchdowns from Keanaaina and a passing touchdown from quarterback Andrew Franzino to receiver Sefania Alatini put the Lancers ahead going into halftime.
“Our kids have battled, going down like we did early, not panicking and being able to come back was really good,” Calcagno said.
Mitty running back Lazaro Faraj-Washington ran for a 43-yard touchdown to put the Monarchs up 19-14, with 6:18 left to play. While Faraj-Washington scored a long touchdown late, Calcagno saw improvements from the defense in open-field tackling for the majority of the game.
“(Faraj-Washington) is a heck of a back, I thought we tackled him pretty well considering how good he really is,” Calcagno said.
In the second quarter, with the Monarchs up 13-7 in the red zone, St. Francis came up with a crucial stop on fourth down to keep the game at one score. Calcagno trusted his defense to compete with Mitty’s offense, with the stop swaying momentum in St. Francis’ favor.
After facing injuries to start the season, St. Francis is starting to get healthier. Calcagno said that since young players who stepped up have gotten more reps at the varsity level, the team has improved top to bottom.
Calcagno said the Lancers “are almost fully healthy.”
St. Francis will face Junipero Serra in San Mateo Saturday in its next league game, before welcoming the St. Ignatius Wildcats Oct. 24.
