FOOTBALL: Golden Knights fall just short
St. Francis falls 21-20 to Loyola
St. Francis Dietrich Riley, right, gains some yards in the first quarterThursday night against Loyola in La Cañada. Loyola edged St. Francis, 21-20. He finished with 107 yards on 20 carries. (Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer)
By Scott Galetti, Staff Writer
LA CAÑADA - In its fourth consecutive game against a strong opponent, St. Francis High School's football team once again found itself an underdog when it hosted Loyola on Thursday night.
The Golden Knights were forced to play without starting quarterback Austin Heyworth, who left the game with an injury midway through the second half. But even with everything seemingly going against them, there was no need to fear for the Golden Knights for three quarters.
Unfortunately for St. Francis, Loyola only needed one quarter to do some serious damage.
Anthony Barr scored a pair of touchdowns, including a 2-yard run with 1:08 remaining, to give the Cubs a come-from-behind, 21-20 victory over the stunned Golden Knights in front of an overflow crowd at Friedman Field. Barr finished the game with 85 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries to lead the Cubs (4-3).
St. Francis (3-4) appeared to be sending the game into overtime when junior backup Justin Sciarra hit Dietrich Riley for a 12-yard touchdown with no time remaining on the clock.
Sean McGuinness, however, was wide on the extra-point try to send Loyola players into a frenzy and the Golden Knights into stunned silence.
"We were contemplating going for two there at the end, but there was an agreement that there's overtime," St. Francis coach Jim Bonds said. "Hindsight is 20-20; maybe you go for two and don't put that pressure on your kicker, but we thought we'd kick the point and take our chances in an extended period."
Sciarra did his best to lead St. Francis to an upset by running an efficient offense in the first half. He finished the game 7-of-13 for 67 yards and a touchdown. And running back Evan King collected a pair of touchdowns in the first half for the Golden Knights.
"I'm just proud of our guys," Bonds said. "We're playing without Austin Heyworth 99 percent of the game and Justin Sciarra stepped in and did a great job. We had to simplify the offense quite a bit for him, but he's a gutsy guy."
St. Francis held the ball for much of the first half on one series and drove 60 yards in nearly nine minutes, but came up empty when McGuinness missed a 25-yard field goal.
Chris Sember gave the Golden Knights the ball right back, though, when he intercepted a Stephen Rokus pass and returned it to the Loyola 9. Three plays later, King dove into the end zone with his first touchdown to give the Golden Knights a 7-0 lead.
St. Francis linebacker Anthony Lombardo recovered a Will Partridge fumble to give the Golden Knights the ball again. After Riley rambled 45 yards to the Cubs' 2, King got his second touchdown to give the Golden Knights a 14-0 halftime lead.
Riley led St. Francis with 107 yards on 20 carries. He also added two catches for 18 yards and a score.
The Golden Knights forced four Loyola turnovers to keep themselves in the game.
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
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Does anyone have any thoughts on the fact that Bonds tried to bring back Austin into the game twice? I personally thought that he was posing a major risk for his young QB.
first of all, it was mostly the place kickers fault for the shanked ball at then end to make loyola win..if he hadn't placed it crooked, sean might have had a better chance...
and who cares about muir or sm?!
its all about loyola
riley's talents are being wasted at SF.
he should go back to the pasadena public schools.
I was there, and the came revealed two things about loyola;
1. they have some serious problems for falling into such a whole against a mediocre SF team and giving up what should have been the game tying touchdown as time expired.
2. the fourth quarter was a perfect one for loyola, if you take away that last drive. those three scores; and the defense was impressive (except for the last minute)
and about st francis...they played well.
That SM game sounds like a Bill Maloney special. Perhaps they read Goldenarm's scouting report.
Neither Loyola nor SF are important football teams in the Southland.
Sean McGuinness should not be aloud back at SF..... Blair who?
the fact that loyola played a terrible first three quarters and still pulled it out just speaks to the fact that st. francis is still the mediocre program it has always been...
Loyola who?
St Francis lost the game more than Loyola won it. St Francis with a 14 point lead half way through the 2nd quarter? Solid play from SF and I came away impressed. Loyola rolls up 21 unanswered points in the second half was what they should have done in the 1st half. Overall, I was disappointed in Loyola’s play. SF comes back with the clock running out to score a TD only to miss the tying extra point and lose the game.
The Good: SF has some solid young talent on both varsity and JV. They came out and played the 1st two quarters of inspired football. That sophomore RB #33 for Loyola will be a D1 player for sure.
The Bad: SF’s inability to maintain pressure and score in the second half lost the game for them.
The Ugly: What has happened to Loyola’s football program? They had the numbers, size, and speed. Loyola should have won by 35 points.
Loyola only needed the fourth quarter to do the damage. Everyone needs to face the fact that Loyola anhilliated St. Fancis in the last quarter. No one choked-just solid football from a legacy school.
Partridge shares 33 with Anthony Barr, and it was Barr who fumbled, fyi.
bonds out coached again and talented players like the back up qb who is better than the 1st qb gets no time
It's a good possibility. So is Blair-Monrovia.
is ARCADIA vs MUIR the Game of the Week for week 8?