Treville Hilton of Chicago Hope Academy tries to shake a Bishop Diego tackle and break into the open field. 
Kaio Tuttle of Bishop Diego intercepts a pass intended for Devarey McClain of Chicago Hope Academy. 
Adrian Soracco of Bishop Diego tries to shake off Chicago Hope Academy’s Javaughn Bailey with a stiff arm. 
Adrian Soracco leaps over a tackle attempt. 
Bishop Diego’s Adrian Soracco pulls away from a Chicago Hope Academy defender. 
Adrian Soracco follows the Bishop line through the Chicago Hope Academy defense.
The defense couldn’t save Bishop Diego’s offense from an afternoon of fumbling around with the football on Saturday.
The Cardinals lost five fumbles, but Chicago Hope Academy could capitalize on only one.
The visiting Eagles scored on a third-quarter, fourth-down, 33-yard touchdown pass and kicked the PAT, and that was the difference in a 7-6 victory over Bishop in a game at Santa Barbara City College’s La Playa Stadium that was rescheduled from Friday night.
A power outage on SBCC’s main campus Friday forced the game to be changed to Saturday. The electricity remained out for the 11 a.m. game as the main scoreboard and public address system were not in operation.
A game clock and mini scoreboard on the field were running off a generator.
Bishop’s offense couldn’t generate much as it continually hurt itself with turnovers. It also lost starting quarterback Michael Luckhurst to a shoulder injury on the Cardinals’ second possession of the game.
Luckhurst, who took over for an injured Buddy Melgoza in last week’s game at Nipomo, was sacked by a blitzing Hope defensive back Rashaad Whittington and fumbled. The Eagles recovered the ball and Luckhurst got up holding his right shoulder.
The Cardinals were driving when Luckhurst went down. They had a third and goal at the 6 when Whittington came in untouched and forced the fumble.
Jackson Haskell replaced Luckhurst. The mistakes, however, continued.
“Just way too many turnovers and too many balls on the ground,” Bishop coach Tom Crawford said. “Our defense played well enough to keep us in the game, but you’re not going to score points when you put the ball on the ground and turn it over like we did.”
From the opening series, the Bishop defensive unit came up big.
A lost fumble on the first snap of the game gave Hope Academy the ball at the Bishop 9. Keyshawn Krefft, the Eagles’ outstanding lineman and punter/kicker, recovered the ball.
A Hope Academy holding penalty and Bishop’s rugged defense kept the Eagles out of the end zone. On fourth and goal from the 14, Sam Mikaele tipped quarterback Trevor Land’s pass in the end zone to end the threat.
“We turn over the ball on the first snap and they’re already sitting inside our red zone and the defense gets the ball back for us,” Crawford remarked.
Mikaele broke up another pass from Land that was picked off by Luke Knightley in the second quarter. But the Cardinals gave the ball right back on a fumble. Linebacker Jaden Pankau recovered for the Eagles.
The sloppy first half ended in a scoreless draw.
Hope Academy broke the stalemate in the third quarter after defensive back Jeremiah Jones recovered a fumbled punt at the Bishop 30.
The Cardinals sacked Land for a 2-yard loss. On second down, he fired a perfect pass up the left sideline that was dropped in the end zone. Land went the other way on third down and hit freshman Cameron Rayford for a 33-yard touchdown. Krefft kicked the all-important PAT for a 7-0 lead at 8:55 of the third quarter.
“It took our guys about half to warm up to playing,” Hope Academy coach Chris Mallette said.
The touchdown seemed to revive Bishop’s offense. Haskell handed off to Adrian Soracco and Matt Bribiesca and they gained a combined 39 yards to the Hope Academy 35. On third and four, Haskell was dropped for a 2-yard loss.
“Jackson was back up last year,” Crawford noted. “His ability to manage the game is clear, and I thought he did a a nice job of doing that. I actually felt we started to move the ball on the ground, finally.”
Adam Luckhurst came in to try a 51-yard field goal and he nailed it. Hope Academy was called for roughing the kicker and Bishop accepted the penalty, thus nullifying the field goal and giving it the ball at the 22.
“The game was showing the number of trips we were getting into the red zone was going to be pretty limited,” Crawford explained of his decision to take the penalty. “I obviously second guess it now, but at the time I was sitting there going, ‘You know what, we got a little bit of a drive going and let’s see if we can finish it off.’
“And, of course, we end up getting nothing out of it.”
Anthony Villa and Mikaele picked up 12 and 10 yards, respectively, before the fumble bug reared its ugly head again. Soracco recovered a bad pitchout that resulted in a 16-yard loss and the Cardinals fumbled again two plays later, with linebacker Treville Hilton of Hope Academy recovering.
But Bishop’s defense rescued the offense again as Kaio Tuttle intercepted a long pass from Land at the Cardinals’ 14.
Bishop pounded the ball with Soracco, Bribiesca and Villa, and Haskell mixed in a screen pass to Marcus Chan for a 34-yard gain.
The Cardinals scored on a Bribiesca dive from the 1.
On the PAT, Whittington rushed in unblocked from the defensive right end and that pressure forced Adam Luckhurst’s kick to sail wide left, leaving the Cardinals behind 7-6 with 7:34 left in the fourth quarter.
Bishop’s defense stopped Hope Academy on its next possession, but the Cardinals fumbled the punt. Fortunately for the home team, there was an inadvertent whistle and the officials ruled to replay the fourth down.
Bishop held on to the second punt and marched to the Hope Academy 47 before the Eagles stopped them on fourth down.
Hope Academy ran out the clock and then headed to the beach for a postgame barbecue with Bishop families, boosters and the football team.
Mallette said the experience of bringing his team to Santa Barbara was incredibly special.
He said he cherished “being able to share these moments with our guys and moments that they otherwise might not ever have. Some of these guys, this may be their only trip to California in their life.”
“They got to come to Santa Barbara,” he added. “Who gets to come to Santa Barbara, play a football game right off the beach, almost play a football game right on the beach?”
— Noozhawk Sports Editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.