San Marcos took a step back in its final tuneup before Channel League play.
The Royals self-destructed after building a two-touchdown lead and dropped a 34-21 decision to Arroyo Grande in their homecoming football game Friday night at Valley Stadium.
The Royals gave up a long kickoff return that led to an Eagles’ touchdown, they threw an interception that was converted into a score and they missed an assignment on a long pass play late in the game that would set up the eventual winning TD.
“We gave them the game,” said a disappointed San Marcos coach Dare Holdren. “We made a lot of mental mistakes and we’re not a good enough team to recover from mental mistakes and win.”
The miscues spoiled what started out as an exciting night for the Royals (2-3). The offensive line paved the way for some big runs by the hard-charging Cody Clark, who finished with 150 yards on 26 carries. Clark carried the ball on every play during one drive, ripping off big gainers of 28 and 13 yards, and capped the series with a 4-yard touchdown run to tie the score at 7-7 with 8:11 left in the second quarter.
A couple of punt plays had the San Marcos faithful buzzing. First, punter Manny Hernandez avoided disaster when he ran down a bad snap, picked up the ball and got off a rugby-style kick.
The next time the Royals lined for a punt they faked it and scored a touchdown. The ball was snapped to the up-back Jonathan Lopez, who lobbed the ball to wide out Justin Duran. The unguarded Duran rambled 63 yards down the right sideline to give San Marcos a 14-7 lead late in the second quarter.
“That’s automatic,” Holdren said of the call. “If (the Eagles) don’t line up on the guy, we throw it. Duran made a big play for us.”
The Royals’ punt team came up with yet another big play in the third quarter, downing a 45-yard Hernandez punt at the Arroyo Grande 1.
On first down, the Eagles fumbled the ball and Bennie Kirkwood recovered for San Marcos at the 2. Clark scored on the next play, putting the Royals in command 21-7.
That’s when the good times ended for San Marcos.
On the ensuing kickoff, Arroyo Grande’s fleet-footed Bo Cabalar raced up the middle of the field and then broke outside for a 74-yard return to the San Marcos 12. The Eagles (3-2) would score four plays later. Quarterback Kyle Kleinsmith fumbled the ball and Cabalar fell on it in the end zone to make the score 21-14 at 3:24 of the third quarter.
“That kickoff return was big,” Holdren pointed out. “The story of tonight was a lot of breakdowns.”
San Marcos appeared to bounce back from the kickoff breakdown by putting together a nice drive on its next possession. Quarterback James Crook completed a couple of 12-yard passes to Max Cavalier and Austin Nichols, and Clark had a 13-yard run to the Arroyo Grande 35. But disaster struck two plays later as the Eagles’ Kyle Reinhardt intercepted a pass.
San Marcos had three passes intercepted in the game, and two were returned for touchdowns by Cabalar. He had a 30-yard return for a TD in the first quarter.
Kleinsmith, meanwhile, found his passing touch and moved the Eagles to the San Marcos 10. Jordan Murray finished the drive with a 10-yard blast up the middle to knot the score at 21-21 with 7:57 left in the third quarter.
Kleinsmith finished 10-of-21 for 155 yards.
Despite losing the lead, San Marcos still had a shot at pulling this one out. Parker Carroll delivered a big hit on Arroyo Grande’s Christian Crichton to force a fumble and Ian Fisher recovered the ball at the Eagles’ 18.
The Royals, however, couldn’t sustain a drive and had to punt with less than two minutes left in the game.
Arroyo Grande went to the air. Kleinsmith hit Crichton for 8 yards to the 50-yard line, leaving the Eagles with a third and 2. This turned out to be the back-breaking play for the Royals. They left wide receiver John Alexander wide open and Kleinsmith found him for a 49-yard gain to the 1. Crichton ran in for the score and a 28-21 lead.
“I saw that their safety was at the right hashmark and I’m supposed to read the safety,” said Kleinsmith on how he spotted Alexander open along the left sideline.
“One of our guys missed an assignment,” said Holdren of the crucial play.
It was another one of those mental mistakes that haunted the Royals on this night.
Cabalar intercepted another San Marcos pass and returned it 39 yards for the final touchdown.
Asked what he told his team after such a tough defeat, Holdren said, “We need to come to school on Saturday to watch the film (of this game) and get better.”
(Photos taken by Roy Mata/Presidiopics)
