Serra’s Late-Push Not Enough As They Fall to St. Francis

Written by Colton Seike

It was certainly a thriller in Mountain View on Friday night, as Serra Padres received their first loss in league play to St. Francis High School by the score of 41-34.

As many believed that this was going to be a defensive battle all night, the Padres and Lancers turned the tables and it  quickly became an offensive shootout.

The Padre offense was slow coming out in the first quarter, as they had multiple three-and-outs and could not find any holes in the Lancer defense. 

After St. Francis scored first in the first quarter, Serra’s run-heavy offense needed to break out in the second quarter.

The Padre offense finally got points on the board with 9:27 left in the second quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by back-up running back Kevin McGee.
Unfortunately, the point after attempt was blocked by the Lancers and made the score 7-6 St. Francis.

Once the Padre running game started going, they tried airing it out and throwing the deep ball, trying to catch the Lancers off-guard. 

On a gutsy call by head coach Patrick Walsh, the Padres decided to go for it on 4th and 4 in Lancer territory and succeeded.

Starting  senior quarterback, Matthew Fa’aita passed to senior wide receiver Hamilton Anoa’i on a 27-yard touchdown with 5:58to go in the second quarter, 13-7 Padres.

Before the first half came to a close, the Lancers scored once more with a 30-yard field goal, making the score 13-10 at halftime. 

The second half was completely a different story for the Padres, one that they certainly did not want to be in. 

After being held scoreless in the third quarter, Serra had to fight back from a 24-13 deficit in the fourth quarter.

The Serra passing game was certainly becoming explosive,  as their run heavy offense was not finding gaps and open runs with the Lancer defense.

Serra scored early in the fourth quarter on a 30-yard reception by sophomore wide receiver Brandon Monroe from Fa’aita, slimming the Lancer lead to 24-20. 

With a defensive stop for the Padres, Fa’aita and his offense came up huge with another touchdown pass, this time a 45-yard screen pass to junior running back Kava Cassidy with 7:40 to go. 

Serra’s defense struggled, as they gave up 17-unanswered points to St. Francis, and now the offense had to comeback late in the fourth quarter.

Once again, Fa’aita drove down the field, with about 1:28 to go in the game, and found Anoa’i for a 9-yard touchdown reception. 

That was it for the Padres, as they could not recover the on-side kick after the touchdown, and was upset by St. Francis 41-34.

“At the end, St. Francis was just more disciplined than we were,” Cassidy said. “We made a lot more mistakes and that's what killed us. They had no penalties, we had a lot of penalties.”

Cassidy continued to say that St. Francis was a “really good team” and that the offense and defense had to “come out harder next time.”

Next up for the Padres is against Archbishop Riordan High School. The game will be held in San Francisco on Nov. 9, 2013. Kick off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.