Don’t be fooled by the final score: St. Francis High 56, Aptos 28. The top-seeded Lancers and No. 8 Mariners entered the fourth quarter of Friday’s Central Coast Section Division I quarterfinal football game tied at 28.
Then the St. Francis offense ran wild – producing four touchdowns in just under seven minutes – while its defense clamped down on Aptos.
“We’ll enjoy this one because we had to respond,” Lancers coach Greg Calcango said, “and it was good for us to get punched in the mouth.”
The Mariners got in the first punch, scoring on their first play from scrimmage – a 39-yard pass from Matt Hood to Rio Cruz that came after St. Francis fumbled away the opening kickoff.
That fumble was just about the only miscue Viliami Teu made Friday night, and he more than made up for it. The senior running back rushed for 257 yards and a school record-tying five touchdowns, two of which came in the decisive fourth quarter.
“Coming on the sideline, my coaches were encouraging me to flush it,” Teu said of the fumble. “‘You’ve got to come back on the next drive and score,’ and that’s what we did.”
Teu’s 27-yard scamper, coupled with Matthew Karic’s extra point, tied the game at 7 with 9:40 remaining in the first.
Aptos recaptured the lead with a touchdown on its next drive, only to see the Lancers answer quickly again. Starting at midfield thanks to Camilo Arquette’s 50-yard kick return, St, Francis scored five plays later on Teu’s 1-yard plunge.
That’s when the Mariners’ offense, nearly perfect to that point, started making mistakes it couldn’t afford to make against an undefeated team like St. Francis (10-0). Aptos’ next drive was derailed by two penalties, a broken-up pass and Esaia Vavao’s 2-yard sack. The Mariners (8-2) went on fourth and long – they never punted in the game – and the Lancers stopped Seamus Carey’s run 6 yards short of the marker.
Taking possession at their 27, St. Francis marched down the field behind its overpowering line and runners Teu and Arquette, who broke several tackles on a fourth-down carry good for 27 yards.
“Give it up to Camilo Arquette,” said Teu, who scored an 18-yard TD a play later to give the Lancers their first lead. “That boy runs like a grown man.”
Arquette finished with 101 yards. In total, St. Francis racked up 438 yards on the ground, breaking a nearly 30-year-old school record (417 in 1992).
“We haven’t pounded it like that in a while,” Calcagno said of the Lancers’ running attack. “And we had to because we had to keep the ball and we had to be physical. … Their guys stood in there and they played their tails off, but I think we wore them down a little bit at the end.”
After answering an Aptos touchdown by scoring late in the second quarter on a 9-yard pass from Josh Perry to Andrew Adkison – one of only four passes St. Francis attempted Friday – the offense got plenty of time to rest. The Mariners opened the third quarter with a 16-play drive that ate up nearly eight minutes of clock and resulted in Carey’s 2-yard dive into the end zone.
With the game now tied at 28, St. Francis embarked on a long scoring drive of its own. Starting at their 31, the Lancers capped a 14-play series with Arquette’s 2-yard run up the middle. Karic’s kick put St. Francis up 35-28 with nine minutes left in the game.
Aptos failed to make a first down on its next two possessions, leaving St. Francis with favorable field position. Both times, St. Francis needed just one play to score: Teu followed a 40-yard TD with a 26-yarder that sealed the victory.
The Lancers’ Antonio Almeida recovered a fumble on the Mariners’ next possession, leading to a 65-yard touchdown by halfback Aven Pamintuan, and Declan Quinn intercepted a Hood pass moments later.
St. Francis hosts No. 5 Menlo-Atherton (9-2) 7 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.
Eagles upend Soquel
Los Altos won its first playoff game in 15 years, knocking off host Soquel 36-30 Friday in the CCS Division V quarterfinals.
The seventh-seeded Eagles (8-3) overcame a nine-point deficit in the third quarter to defeat the No. 3 Knights (7-4).
“The kids just played their hearts out,” Los Altos coach Dave DeGeronimo said.
Jimmy Flynn shook off two early interceptions, throwing four touchdown passes. Zach Fagin caught three of those throws and Cole Rafferty the other. Rafferty also scored on a 99-yard kick return midway through the third and intercepted a pass in the final minute to guarantee the win.
Additionally, linebacker Leo Goebel’s fumble recovery late in the third was “critical” to the Eagles’ cause, the coach said.
Los Altos hosts No. 7 St. Francis SCP (8-3) of Watsonville 7 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.
“Their run game is pretty special,” DeGeronimo said of the Sharks, who routed No. 2 Cupertino 38-13 Friday, “and they’re very athletic.”
Spartans stun Acorns
No. 7 Mountain View held off second-seeded Live Oak 28-21 Friday for its first playoff win in 19 years. The visiting Spartans (6-5) led 28-7 midway through the fourth, but then the Acorns (7-4) scored back-to-back touchdowns to make it close.
Mountain View ran out the clock from there, despite playing without its top two running backs. Starter Leo Navarro is out with a leg fracture suffered last month, according to coach Shelley Smith, and Dillon Daniels sustained a chest injury midway through Friday’s game.
The Spartans turned to Arturo Hernandez and Drake Wilkening, both of whom made big plays. Hernandez broke loose for a run of nearly 70 yards in the fourth that set up Jackson Steffen’s QB sneak touchdown. Earlier, Wilkening caught a TD pass of more than 60 yards from Steffen, who also threw a pair of scoring strikes to Joe Brown.
Smith played Steffen at safety as well, and the senior intercepted two passes.
“Jackson played a great game,” the coach said. “He had a big night for us.”
So did Brown, who made a one-handed grab in the corner of the end zone just before halftime.
Mountain View travels to San Francisco Saturday to take on No. 3 Sacred Heart Cathedral (4-7) in a semifinal game set to kick off at 6 p.m. at Kezar Stadium.
“We’ve got our hands full,” Smith said. “We’ll need to play a real solid game. I think our kids will be ready.”
