Preparation met desire in the second half of Santa Paula High’s non-league football game against Bishop Diego Friday night at La Playa Stadium.
Santa Paula quarterback Max Moreno profited from the preparation when he rolled right and found a wide-open Mike Vera in the corner of the end zone for a two-point PAT pass with eight minutes to play, leading the visiting Cardinals to a 14-13 win after a 13-0 deficit.
“We’ve practiced that play for several weeks but this is the first time we had a chance to use it in a game,” said Santa Paula coach Teohua Sanchez, whose team improved to 2-1. “We’re trying to learn how to win. This team has been on the other side of so many games like this. It speaks volumes for the way these guys are learning.”
Moreno scored the touchdown that set up the winning PAT with a 6-yard run after a short drive punctuated by several hard runs by Anthony Murillo.
The game-turning play for Santa Paula, however, had come late in the third quarter on a play that was more desire than planning. Joe Camacho simply muscled his way through the middle of the Bishop Diego line to smother a punt and Murillo scooped up the loose ball at the 3 and trotted in for a touchdown. Santa Paula no doubt practices rushing the punter every day, but Camacho said there was no special play on for this occasion.
“I just came off the ball hard,” he explained. “I just had to sell out.”
Prior to the blocked kick, most of the game’s fireworks had been supplied by Bishop Diego’s toy cannon of a quarterback, 5-foot-8, 150-pound senior Anthony Martinez. He completed 8-of-9 passes for 121 yards in the first half, including two touchdowns to Arturo Gonzalez. The first covered 20 yards in the first quarter and was followed by a PAT kick by Sam Verhasselt. The second was for 7 yards late in the second quarter and was followed by a missed kick.
But Bishop was able to do little in the second half on offense, steadily losing field position as it went three straight drives without a first down. Santa Paula, with a much larger roster and a full-platoon of offense and defense, seemed to wear down Bishop’s line, which included several two-way starters.
“I thought our defense played pretty well,” said Bishop coach Tom Crawford. “But we spent a lot of energy trying to defend a short field in the second half and we did seem to make the mistakes of a tired team, things like penalties (on offense).”
Martinez nonetheless gave his team one last chance with a 44-yard pass to Desmond Vanderfin in the game’s closing seconds. The pass put the ball at the Santa Paula 35 with 2.5 seconds to play and Verhasselt was sent out to try a 51-yard field goal on the game’s final play.
“Our kicker has been showing he can make it from around 45 yards,” said Crawford. “This was a little more than that but it seemed like a better chance than a hail Mary (pass).”
In this case, it made no difference. The kick was blocked by Brandon Dock.
Martinez finished 13-for-22 with 152 yards passing, with Vanderfin pulling in six catches for 82 yards. R.J. Escamilla led the Cardinals, 0-3, with 36 yards rushing.
SANTA PAULA 14, BISHOP DIEGO 13
Santa Paula…………0 0 6 8 — 14
Bishop Diego…….7 6 0 0 — 13
First quarter
BD — Gonzalez, 20 pass from Martinez (Verhasselt kick) 0:00.
Second quarter
BD — Gonzalez, 7 pass from Martinez (kick failed) :37.
Third quarter
SP — Murillo 3 return of blocked punt (kick failed) 2:19.
Fourth quarter
SP — Moreno 6 run (Vera, pass from Moreno) 8:00.
TEAM TOTALS SP BD
First downs 15 9
Rushes-yards 33-145 24-33
Passing yards 114 152
Comp-Att-Int 11-27-0 13-22-0
Sacks-yards lost 3-13 1-11
Punts-avg. 3-38 6-31.5
Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0
Penalties-yards 9-55 7-42
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — SP: Aguayo 14-70, Moreno 6-9, Murillo 9-51, McClain 1-15. BD: Escamilla 13-36, Bortolazzo 6-5, Vanderfin 1-2, Martinez 2-minus-11, Garcia 1-1.
PASSING — SP: Moreno 11-27-0-114. BD: Martinez 13-22-0-152
RECEIVING — SP: Yazaguirre 2-28, McClain 2-6, Murillo 1-10, Vera 4-41, Brown 2-29. BD: Vanderfin 6-82, Gonzalez 4-67, Verhasselt 1-5, Bortollazo 1-10, Escamilla 1-minus-12.
MISSED FIELD GOALS — BD: 51 (B)
TEAM RECORDS — SP 2-1, BD 0-3.
