Thanks to Ryan Tomey for the photos and game info
Football:
St. Francis fell to 0-3 to start the 2024 season, and the way Friday night’s contest ended had to be a massive punch in the gut.
But the Golden Knights made a huge step forward in their quality of play, as compared to week-zero and week-one blowout losses to St. Bonaventure (38-7) and Mira Costa (35-6).
SFHS, the No. 171st ranked team in the state (MaxPreps) trailed for most of Friday night’s showdown with the 72nd-ranked Knights, and they were playing without their injured quarterback, John Sanders, for the second consecutive game.
However, Shawn Sanders, a sophomore, did everything he could to fill the shoes of his big brother, and he put the Golden Knights in position to win the game.
Trailing 33-21 with 9:21 to play, Sanders and Deveon Blaylock hooked up on a pair of 6-yard TD passes.
The first came with 7:40 to play.
Sanders to Blaylock, the sequel, gave SFHS a 34-33 lead with just 55 seconds to play.
To their credit, Notre Dame drove 58 yards in 45 seconds.
And William Weisberg’s 39-yard field goal with five seconds to play was the dagger.
Weisberg had field goals of 18, 47 and 39 yards.
Looking back, a play just before the half turned out to be costly.
Sanders had just thrown a 2-yard TD pass to Julian Navarro to pull St. Francis to within 17-14 of the Knights with just seven seconds remaining in the second quarter.
The ensuing kickoff was returned to SFHS territory, and a personal foul penalty didn’t just move the ball to the Golden Knights 30-yard line.
It also gave Notre Dame and Weisberg an untimed down.
And Weisberg made SFHS pay with his second of three crucial field goals.
Isaac Fajardo had a pair of 1-yard TD runs for St. Francis.
Steele Pizzella had a huge Friday night.
Pizzella completed 17 of 24 for 203 yards.
Pizzella tossed three TD passes and didn’t turn the ball over.
He also gained 129 of Notre Dame’s 208 yards on the ground, including a 44-yard TD run.
Tre Fernandez caught seven passes for 106 yards, including TD receptions of 13 and 66 yards.
Max Martin-Beckmann was a game changer on defense,
He led the Knights with 12 tackles and two interceptions.
Up next: The Golden Knights will make the 2.2-mile drive to Muir next Friday at 7.
The Mustangs are 0-2 after losses at Bonita (27-7) in week zero, and a 38-21 setback against their visitors from Charter Oak last night.
The good news is that John Sanders will return and lead the SFHS offense at Muir.
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Quotable:
St. Francis sophomore, Shawn Sanders: “Last night was a battle. We should have clicked more on offense in the first half so that we wouldn’t have to be in that position going into the second half. I’m proud of everyone on the team for not giving up even though we were down and that is what let us come back later in the game. Our mindset going into this week is to just show everyone how good of a team we are and with players being more healthy this week, I think we’ll really get to show people what St. Francis football is about. With the losses we have taken so far, going into league our team has a lot of fire and we’ll be ready.”
St. Francis senior, John Sanders: “After a rough loss last week to Mira Costa, I thought Shawn and the team bounced back well and battled with a good Notre Dame team. They fought till the very end, but we came up short and we’re looking to redeem ourselves against Muir.”
Box Score:
ND: 7-13-6-10-(36)
SF: 7-7-7-13-(34)
Scoring:
N: Steele Pizzella 44 run (William Weisberg kick)
S: Isaac Fajardo 1 run (Shawn Sanders kick)
N: Lloyd Weaver 18 pass from Steele Pizzella (William Weisberg kick)
N: William Weisberg 18 FG
S: Julian Navarro 2 pass from Shawn Sanders (Shawn Sanders kick)
N: William Weisberg 42 FG
S: Isaac Fajardo 1 run (Shawn Sanders kick)
N: Tre Fernandez 13 pass from Steele Pizzella (William Weisberg kick)
N: Tre Fernandez 66 pass from Steele Pizzella (2-point attempt fails)
S: Deveon Blaylock 6 pass from Shawn Sanders (Shawn Sanders kick)
S: Deveon Blaylock 6 pass from Shawn Sanders (2-point attempt fails)
N: William Weisberg 39 FG
Records: Notre Dame (2-1); St. Francis (0-3)
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