Bishop Diego football’s furious comeback effort fell just short in a 30-29 overtime loss to San Jacinto in the CIF-SS Div. 4 playoff opener on Friday at La Playa Stadium.
After storming back from down two scores in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals found themselves on the defensive side of the ball to open overtime.
San Jacinto scored quickly and nailed the extra-point attempt to take a 30-23 lead.
Bishop Diego responded with a fourth-down score as Tua Rojas found Sam Crawford in the back of the endzone. The Cardinals then opted to go for the two-point conversion and the win, lofting a pass up for a 50/50 ball in the endzone.
However, the Tiger defense stood tall and forced an incomplete pass to secure the win and punch their ticket to the CIF-SS Div. 4 Quarterfinals next week.
“As the coaching staff, we were realizing that this game was going to come down to who might make a play,” Bishop Diego head coach Tom Crawford said of the decision to go for two. “I just kind of felt that was our best opportunity to go ahead and put the game away.
“I’m proud of the boys in terms of the way they came back and just kept on fighting. You have a play that ends it where it truly can go either way, so it was a good high school football game.”
Earlier, the Cardinal defense came up with a clutch stop in the fourth quarter, giving their offense the ball at their own 14-yard line with 6:35 to go and trailing 23-10.
The Bishop Diego offense picked up a first down before a pair of penalties and a fumbled snap pushed them back to the 2-yard line, facing a 3rd and 38.
Rojas and the Cardinals never wavered, however, completing a pair of big passes to Oscar Mauia and Sam Crawford to get near midfield. After chipping their way down the field, the Cardinals capped off the 17-play drive with a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Mauia.
“They didn’t get down if we didn’t have a completion, they just came back and worked the next play,” Tom Crawford said of his late-game offense. “They had to overcome some long down and distance situations, and Tua kept a lot of stuff alive with his feet.”
Mauia, who ended with 181 total yards of offense, scored and the extra-point attempt was good to cut the deficit to 23-17 with 1:39 to play.
The Bishop Diego defense then came up clutch with a quick three-and-out to give the offense the ball at their own 18-yard line with 1:17 on the clock.
Rojas then orchestrated an 82-yard drive that featured six big completions, none bigger than a 23-yard strike to Sam Crawford, who made an acrobatic catch in the endzone to tie the game at 23-23 with eight seconds on the clock.
“I am not surprised,” Tom Crawford. “That’s Sam Crawford and the kid is just a baller. He makes a ton of plays on both sides of the ball, and he’s one of those guys that, if you are in a clutch situation, you can count on him.”
Bishop Diego then lined up for the extra-point attempt to take the lead and essentially seal the game, but the Tigers broke through the line and blocked the kick to send the game into overtime.
With the loss, the Cardinals say goodbye to a senior corps that boasts several three and four-year starters, including Rojas, Mauia, Sam Crawford, John Michael Flint and Gabe Villa.
“The connections that they have built, I think, have been a main reason we’ve been successful,” Tom Crawford said. “Even the last two drives offensively, I think it was not play calling as much as it was guys on the same page because they’ve worked together for so long.
“When you think about how many of these guys actually played and some started as sophomores, you’d realize how much time they’ve invested over three years.”
The Tigers cruised down the field on their opening drive, but the Cardinal defense stiffened with its back against the wall and forced a 4th and 4 from the 11-yard line.
San Jacinto went for it, but the Bishop Diego pass rush got there in a hurry and came up with a strip sack. Sam Boedekker scooped up the ball and raced 80 yards down the field into the endzone for the touchdown and 7-0 lead with 7:43 left in the first.
Those proved to be the only points of the first quarter, as both defenses tightened up to keep the score at 7-0 heading into the second.
“The defense had, particularly in the second half of the season, been kind of lights out for us,” Tom Crawford said. “When you realize that quite a few of those guys are actually playing on both sides of the ball, it’s even more impressive what they did.”
However, the Tigers quickly changed that as they took advantage of a trio of Bishop Diego penalties to move down the field and score on a game-tying 6-yard rushing touchdown by Jomini Ransom.
The Cardinals then turned the ball over on an interception by Ahmad McClellan, setting up a 43-yard rushing touchdown by Kingslee Tivao and a two-point conversion to give San Jacinto a 15-7 lead with 6:38 on the clock.
Bishop Diego responded with a strong drive of its own, using a big 27-yard completion from Rojas to Flint to get into Tiger territory and set up a Diego Cortez 25-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 15-10 with 1:25 remaining.
The Tigers took advantage of that time, as Ransom busted off a 46 run before scoring from 4 yards out and rushing in the two-point conversion to take a 23-10 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was a quiet one, as both teams managed just one full possession in the 12 minutes.
“The kind of Wing T stuff they run isn’t easy to prepare for,” Crawford said. “They do it very efficiently, and [Ransom] is a heck of a running back. He was hard to bring down.
“Our kids just kept toughing it out, and I think we got more physical as the game wore on, to be honest. As a result, we got a couple of the big stops here in the second half that we really, really needed.”
Bishop Diego finally got its offense rolling late in the third and found itself knocking on the door as the game turned over to the fourth quarter.
However, the Tigers came up with an interception in the back of their own endzone by Daishaun Davis with 10:56 left in the game to swing all of the momentum back to the visitors.
San Jacinto milked the clock down to 6:35 but was forced to punt, setting up the late game heroics from both sides.