PETALUMA — Three yards away from the end zone with seven seconds remaining, no timeouts and trailing 16-10, Joe Marinello had a hard decision to make. He made it, but it didn”t work out. Not this time anyway.
With a chance to pull even with the St. Vincent Mustangs pending an extra-point try, the Lower Lake Trojans fell seven yards short of no worse than a tie and a probable win as running back Steve Arson, who was trying to turn the corner against a packed-in-tight St. Vincent defense, never made it.
Linebacker Luke Nio came flying into the backfield and brought Arson down with a one-on-one, game-saving tackle as the Mustangs hung on beat the Trojans in a North Central League I interlock varsity football game on Saturday in Petaluma that came down to the final snap of the ball.
“I thought they would pass it,” St. Vincent coach Gary Galloway said. “It did surprise me.”
The Trojans (1-3) probably had time to run two plays had they thrown the ball into the end zone on first-and-goal from the St. Vincent 3-yard line.
“They were really boxed in there,” Lower Lake coach Marinello said in explaining his decision not to throw the ball. “My thinking was we get a play to the outside, we get in there.”
The Trojans had had some success throwing the ball against St. Vincent as Lower Lake quarterback Jake Sanders finished the day 6-for-14 for 114 yards.
“We”ve got a good quarterback and a good wide receiver, but the strength of this team is in running the ball,” Marinello added.
Lower Lake engineered two textbook drives in the fourth quarter after falling behind 16-3. After stopping a St. Vincent drive deep in Mustang territory with 9:04 left in the game, Lower Lake moved 88 yards in 16 plays capped by a Mike Deakins 14-yard touchdown run on which he hammered his way inside and then cut back outside toward the St. Vincent sideline on his way to the end zone.
When St. Vincent got the ball back on the ensuing kickoff, which bounced out of bounds, the Mustangs (1-3) did pick up one first down before Lower Lake”s defense stiffened, forcing a St. Vincent punt that rolled to a stop at the Lower Lake 29 with 1:55 left.
With the Mustangs looking pass, the Trojans crossed them up by staying on the ground. A 22-yard run by Deakins (21 carries for 112 yards) on the very first play had Lower Lake inside St. Vincent territory and an enthusiastic Lower Lake crowd going nuts on the sidelines. Four more runs, including a key 12-yard scamper by Sanders on a fourth-and-two play from the St. Vincent 42, moved the ball to the 30.
Following a short Deakins run, Sanders completed his final pass of the day, a 24-yard strike to Kaylen Hollingsworth that pushed the ball to the 3, where the Trojans were forced to call their final timeout in order to stop the clock they had used their other two earlier on the same drive.
With only seven seconds left, Arson tried to turn the corner on the Lower Lake side of the field, but he never came close as Nio took a perfect angle and stopped Arson dead in his tracks.
“He had a little to make up for,” Galloway said of Nio, who had missed a couple of tackles earlier in the game. “We had everybody stay home (on the final play) and jammed it up a little.”
“Our offense played well enough to win,” Marinello said. “Our defense played well enough to win … it played great. Give the kids credit. I guess if anyone deserves the blame it”s the coach.”
Lower Lake outgained St. Vincent 178-111 on the ground and 295-217 overall. The difference turned out to be the Mustangs” ability to put together scoring drives to open the game and the second half. St. Vincent took the opening kickoff and marched 60 yards on 14 plays, consuming 7:20 on the clock in the process. The marathon drive ended when quarterback Rich Farinha rolled right and found Nio all alone at the 1-yard line. Nio broke a tackle at the goal line and walked into the end zone for a 7-0 lead as Rich Dodele added the extra point.
But whereas the Mustangs controlled the football for nearly the entire first quarter, Lower Lake dominated the second quarter but came away with only three points to show for it — a 19-yard field goal by Jorge Menjivar with 3:40 left in the first half.
On their first offensive series of the second quarter, the Trojans moved down to the St. Vincent 31 before losing possession on downs. They scored on Menjivar”s field goal on their next series, which started at the St. Vincent 44 following a punt. And the Trojans were on the move again right before halftime, going from their own 28 to the St. Vincent 11. On the final play of the half, Sanders” pass into tight coverage was picked off by Farinha in the end zone.
St. Vincent”s defense forced a three-and-out on Lower Lake”s first series of the second half and when the Mustangs got the ball back on a punt, they moved 74 yards — 53 through the air — on 11 plays to open up a 14-3 lead. Running back Brad Miller capped the drive with a 3-yard run.
The Mustangs added two more points later in the quarter when Sanders was sacked in the end zone for a safety by St. Vincent defensive lineman Andrew Regis, pushing the Mustangs” lead to 16-3.
Galloway, the longtime and successful coach of the defending NCL I South champions, said the 2006 season has been something of a challenge for the Mustangs, who return only three starters from last year”s championship team.
“It”s not that we”re young,” Galloway said. “But I”m playing a lot of kids who (were on the varsity) but didn”t start last year. Inconsistency has hurt us … that and turnovers. But we did a good job today of holding onto the football.”
Both teams committed just one turnover and neither led to any points.
Both teams continue their interlock schedules this weekend. Lower Lake hosts St. Helena (2-2) on Friday and St. Vincent hosts Middletown (3-1) on Saturday.
