The Dos Pueblos High football team knew it would need to play a complete game on both sides of the ball Friday night against Fillmore to earn a shot at the Tri-County League title.
While the defense did its part — forcing three turnovers — the offense struggled mightily, failing to score a point in the Chargers’ 14-0 loss at Scott O’Leary Stadium on Senior Night.
With the loss, Dos Pueblos fell to 5-4 overall and 2-2 in league play, while Fillmore secured its first-ever Tri-County league title, improving to 7-2 overall and an unblemished 4-0 conference mark.
“Hats off to my coaching staff and all the kids who get out there and play tough physical defense. That was a testament to what we can do in a gritty game,” Fillmore Head Coach Charlie Weis said.
“We’ve had a lot of games with high-scoring offensive production. Tonight was a gritty one… I have nothing but tremendous amount of respect for AJ and his staff and the way they put their games together and I am actually glad that we got to play one of these gritty games.”
While the final result was a two-score outcome, two key moments made all the difference.
The first came late in the second quarter, as the Chargers recovered a muffed punt at the Fillmore 18-yard line, trailing 7-0. Four plays later, Dos Pueblos drove down to the 1-yard line with 20 seconds in the half.
Faced with a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, the Chargers lined up under center and quarterback Seth Orozco attempted a sneak. The Fillmore defense held tough, forcing a turnover on downs and taking a one-score lead into the break.
“We went with a play that’s been working this year,” Dos Pueblos head coach AJ Pateras said of the play before half. “We’ve done it three or four times this year, and it’s been it’s been productive.
“At the end, we talked about if we could have done something different, we have multiple looks out of that package, but you can’t second guess it. But that’s the key; if we score that, it’s a completely different game going into half.”
The second moment came in the final quarter, as the Flashes were faced with a fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line while still leading 7-0. Instead of taking the chance at three points, the offense came on the field.
The gamble paid off, as senior running back Micah Harm took the direct snap and ran the ball into the end zone to put his team up 14-0.
“I’m always going to believe in our guys. Micah Harm has been an incredible athlete, and our front five has been just absolutely amazing and in that moment, we all knew we were going in,” Weis said.
“This really was a game of inches… To steal an Al Pacino line, we have 53 guys on this roster that will die for the guy next to them for that inch, and I think that’s going to bode well for us going into the playoffs here.”
Despite trailing by two scores, the Chargers never gave up. With nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, senior defensive back Patrick Sullivan intercepted Fillmore’s Nate Perez.
After forcing a three-and-out on the next Fillmore offensive drive, Orozco connected with junior receiver Zaden Battle for 14 yards and then Caeden Lee for another 8 yards to get the Chargers down to the Fillmore 25-yard line.
Looking for the end zone on the next play, Fillmore’s James Magana came up with a key interception with just over four minutes left. The Chargers got the ball back one more time, but this time they were intercepted by junior linebacker Jayce Burboa with under two minutes remaining, ending the contest.
“We had a chance tonight. That was a sloppy game,” Pateras said. “That first half was all over the place, but the guys showed a lot of grit. There was no quit; it was back and forth and we knew it was going to be like that all night, and they just made a couple more plays than we did, and we didn’t execute when we needed to in some of those critical series.”
With the loss, Dos Pueblos’ season finale against its crosstown rival San Marcos becomes a lot more interesting. The Royals are 2-2 in league as well, meaning that next Friday’s winner secures the automatic bid into the playoffs.
“It’s win or go home,” Pateras said. “I mean, I think we are an at-large team with where we are at, but we have had that game on our schedule every year, and you look forward to it. Game 10, playoff guarantee on the line, that’s perfect. You can’t script it.”