MOUNTAIN VIEW – If ever the final score didn’t tell the full story, it was Friday night at St. Francis.
The top-seeded Lancers, playing at home, were deadlocked in the fourth quarter with upset-minded Aptos in the opening round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.
But over the final nine minutes, St. Francis pulled away as the defense forced a couple of turnovers on downs, plus a fumble and an interception, while the offense produced touchdown runs on four consecutive plays from scrimmage to dispatch the No. 8 Mariners, 56-28.
“The biggest lesson for us, in Division I anybody can beat anybody,” St. Francis coach Greg Calcagno said. “They did a good job punching us in the mouth, but we survived and move on, fortunately for us.”
The only previous meeting between these schools came 50 years ago.
Aptos coach Randy Blankenship, a longtime fixture who last month collected his 300th career victory, wasn’t ready to wave the white flag against the only team from this region to defeat De La Salle in the past 30 years.
“We didn’t want to put a scare, we wanted to win,” Blankenship said. “I was extremely proud of the kids. They battled, that’s what I wanted to see.”
St. Francis (10-0) got off on the wrong foot after Viliami “Juju” Teu, who last week broke the school record for most rushing yards in a single game with 344 against Serra, lost a fumble on the opening kickoff.
“Right after, when I came on the sideline, I knew I had to flush it,” Teu said. “Because I didn’t want it to affect my game.”
Aptos (8-2) dialed up a 39-yard touchdown pass from Nick Forbes to Rio Cruz on the next snap to make it 7-0 barely 17 seconds in.
“We were in a dogfight and we knew it,” Calcagno said. “It’s just who is going to flinch?”
St. Francis only attempted four passes the entire night, with quarterback Joshua Perry tossing a 9-yard TD to wideout Andrew Adkinson with 1:21 left in the first half for a 28-21 lead at intermission.
The Lancers largely relied on the ground game, breaking a school record for most rushing yards in a game (417) set in 1992 against St. Ignatius.
Teu alone gained 257 yards on 24 carries with touchdowns of 27, 1, 18, 40 and 26 yards – tying a St. Francis record with five TDs in a single game. He was part of a 1-2 punch with fellow senior Camilo Arquette, who finished with 12 carries for 101 yards.
“I give it up to Camilo Arquette,” Teu said. “That boy runs like a grown man.”
The Lancers accumulated a total of 438 yards on 40 handoffs, as Aven Pamintuan capped off the scoring on a 65-yard burst with 2:49 left.
“We haven’t pounded like that in a while,” said Calcagno, whose team found the end zone on each of its first eight possessions. “And we had to because we had to keep the ball and be physical.”
Aptos embarked on a 16-play, 67-yard drive after the opening kickoff of the second half to pull even at 28-all with 4:25 left in the third quarter.
St. Francis responded with a 14-play, 69-yard drive that culminated with a 2-yard TD run by Arquette to make it 35-28 with exactly nine minutes left.
Aware the Mariners couldn’t match the Lancers’ physicality, Aptos went for it on fourth-and-five from its own 25-yard line on the ensuing possession. But St. Francis safety Padraic Casey forced an incompletion by pressuring the QB as he attempted to keep hope alive.
“I thought it was going to be a nine-minute drive and we were going to go for two – we were not going to overtime with them – and it just didn’t work out,” Blankenship said. “It would’ve been exciting, win or lose.”
In the end, someone had to flinch.
“It was a war today,” Teu said. “I just give it up to Aptos, appreciate them for making us work hard for this.”
