Top-seeded Saint Francis (7-5) will battle Los Gatos for the Division II title after a strong second-half got the Lancers past Aragon (8-4), 41-7.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Lancer quarterback Mike Lauck. “We’ve all been dreaming about this since freshman year. We saw the varsity team our freshman year go to the championship, and we wanted to get back to it. We finally did, and we want to bring the championship back to Saint Francis.”
The Lancers' path to the championship game seemed rock-strewn in the first half. The offense looked out of sync save for one big 59-yard pass play that set up a Landon Baty 1-yard touchdown run, and the defense had trouble getting off the field at times. That was reflected in a 29-yard Nathanial Blood touchdown pass to J.D. Elzie on fourth-and-10 to tie the game 7-7. Then, after a bad punt that set the Lancers up at the Dons’ 31 yard-line with one minute left in the half, Lauck ran it in from nine yards to make the score 14-7 going into the break.
“I would say, that end of the first half was the most disappointing part. That was a big swing,” said Aragon coach Steve Sell.
At the half, Lauck had completed 5-of-10 passes for 93 yards, or just 34 yards without the 59-yard pass.
“We came out and they did something different than (on) film,” said Lauck. “We adjusted more towards halftime, and during the third quarter we really executed our plays and put points on the board.”
Added Lancer coach Nick Navarro: “They missed on a couple little things and I had to get after them a little bit just to let them know that I do care that it’s perfect, every time.”
The ground game wasn’t working either, as the Dons held the Lancers to just 35 rushing yards in the half.
“I was feeling good about how we were playing defense, but we started to run out of weapons offensively," Sell said.
Lauck jump-started the lifeless Lancer offense himself on the second half’s opening drive, but he did it with his legs instead of his arm. He opened the drive with a weaving 46-yard run that got the Lancers into Aragon territory. From there, Alex Andrighetto and Lauck tag-teamed to get down to the 8-yard-line. The senior quarterback took it in himself to cap the 89-yard drive.
“We failed to convert, and it was just a matter of time before they started running the ball. I was kind of waiting for them,” said Sell.
The Dons were not able to get back into the game after that opening drive, and the Lancers posted 340 yards in the half.
Lauck finished with 164 yards and two touchdowns through the air on seven completions, and 113 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Austin Woodard and Austin Guibor were Lauck’s primary targets, finishing with three receptions for 50 yards and a touchdown, and two receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown, respectively. Andrighetto ran for 126 yards on just 11 carries, as the Lancers racked up 468 total yards of offense for the game.
The Dons picked up 219 total yards for the game, but they kept the Lancer defense on the field for long drives.
Defensive coordinator Chris Vasseur sees room for improvement.
“I was not happy with their performance," Vasseur said. "I know we held them to seven, but we gave up long drives and missed opportunities, and when you play a team like Los Gatos, you don’t get many of those opportunities. So we need to do a better job of capitalizing on those chances.”
The most glaring issue is in the secondary, where the Lancers had many opportunities but failed to capitalize.
“We’ve got to play the ball better," Vasseur said. "We’re so poor at playing the ball. We need to finish drives, we need to finish tackles. We missed a lot of tackles tonight.”
The Dons were playing wounded, which limited the offense’s scoring ability.
“The other thing that hurt was not having Patrick (Puani)," Sell said. "We were running Marcel (Jackson) on that power and we lost our fullback … we were kind of making things up as we went. We needed to be a little more creative.”
Jackson finished with 64 yards on 19 carries, and Elzie added 29 yards on nine carries, as well as four receptions for 62 yards and a touchdown. Blood threw for 117 yards and a touchdown on 12 completions, and Kyle Kaye caught four balls for 60 yards.
Looking ahead to the championship game, the Lancers and the Wildcats promise to be worthy rivals.
“We used to play them for years as a non-league opponent,” Navarro said. “It’s good competition. They’re in a good 'A' league, and they’re a good competitor, and we bring our flavor of the WCAL. It’s always been a good, hard-fought battle.”
