Playoff football often comes to one final play or needing a yard, condensing the work of the summer and regular season into a moment.
Friday’s CCS Division I playoff game between St. Francis and Los Gatos delivered that, with St. Francis running back Kaimani Keanaaina needing a yard to pull within an extra point of a tie but getting stopped at the goal line by the Los Gatos defense line as time expired in a thrilling 14-7 win.
With 15 seconds remaining and a tough Los Gatos defense stuffing a run the previous play, St. Francis had no timeouts left as the clock ran down. Quickly lining up at the one-yard line, St. Francis bet on its offensive line and run game to get the yard needed, a team strength throughout the season. Los Gatos pulled off the stop thanks to an aggressive defense that loaded the box and shot through to take down Keanaaina in the backfield.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t have that last timeout; we had to just run the same play twice, and they knew it,” St. Francis head coach Greg Calcagno said. “Hats off to Los Gatos. It was a hell of a game for everybody. … People got their money’s worth.”
St. Francis got the ball down 14-7 with approximately five minutes left in the game and ran 15 plays, most of them runs, to get to the one-yard line with under a minute left. While the ending did not go St. Francis’ way, Calcagno was proud of the way the team fought and battled for each other.
“Happy with what we did, wish we would have got in, but super proud of our young men,” Calcagno said.
Both offenses started slowly in the first half, with a touchdown throw from Los Gatos’ Callum Schweitzer to Max Thomas the only score of the first half. St. Francis, the visiting No. 6 seed, had several penalties and drops that stalled offensive drives, but the St. Francis defense kept it to 7-0 at the end of the first half.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit in the first half, momentum-wise,” Calcagno said. “We felt like we were there, we just had to tighten some things up.”
The Lancers had new life in the second half, tying the game up with 5:21 left in the third quarter on a quarterback sneak from Drew Cumby. The St. Francis defense made several plays in the third quarter, including a sack by defensive end Miles Day that resulted in a turnover on downs and a fumble recovery by defensive tackle Case Jacobson in St. Francis territory on the following Los Gatos offensive drive to keep the score tied at seven. Although Los Gatos scored in the fourth quarter on a touchdown pass from Schweitzer with six minutes left, the St. Francis defense kept the team in the game against the high-powered attack. Los Gatos has scored over 50 points in its last two games and had its lowest scoring output for the season Friday night. Los Gatos’ lowest score of the season previously was a 28-0 win over Menlo School.
“I thought our defense played fantastic,” Calcagno said. “They’ve been scoring 40 a game, and they’re super explosive offensively. Us being able to hold them to 14 was pretty incredible.”
Los Gatos, the No. 3 seed, will play No. 4 seed Palma next week.
