High school football: St. Francis holds on to beat Sacred Heart Cathedral in penalty-stunted shootout

MOUNTAIN VIEW — The first half between St. Francis and Sacred Heart Cathedral had all the makings of a classic shootout: both teams throwing deep balls and cashing them in for five highlight-reel touchdowns.

But instead, the second half saw the field seemingly turning yellow because of all of the penalty flags thrown, slowing the game to a crawl and turning an otherwise offensive night into a struggle that St. Francis won, 24-17.

“I don’t think either team could get much established,” St. Francis coach Greg Calcagno said of the second half. “It was kind of a shootout in the first half and then nothing. I mean, it’s crazy. A lot of points in the first half for a WCAL game.”

Sacred Heart Cathedral’s best drive of the second half came early in the fourth quarter, after junior quarterback Aidan McGrath hit two big plays — a 30-yard strike to junior Enzo Quartaroli followed by a 19-yard catch-and-run from senior Isaiah Keishk – to move the Irish to inside the Lancer 25.

After an incompletion on first down, the Irish were called for a hold in the backfield on second down, then had another flag thrown for unsportsmanlike conduct — turning second-and-10 into second-and-41. After another incompletion, the Irish were whistled for another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a third down screen pass went for 13 yards, pushing them back again to fourth-and-43.

The Irish would not cross midfield again.

In a game that last three hours and didn’t end until 10:15 p.m,, there were 20 total accepted penalties between the two teams — and that doesn’t include several penalties that were either declined or offset by having penalties on both teams. St. Francis was penalized nine times for 81 yards, while Sacred Heart Cathedral had 11 penalties accepted for 102 yards — including four total unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

Sacred Heart Cathedral coach Antoine Evans said he had never seen multiple unsportsmanlike penalties called in a row like the fourth quarter sequence, leaving many on the Irish side — fans, players and coaches — vocally frustrated with the officials.

“You can’t win against the ref,” Evans said. “You just got to keep the kids positive and tell them to just keep moving forward. It’s the only thing we could do. That’s what I said to them, ‘Let me fight, let me argue and you guys keep your head in the game.’”

Evans said he was proud of his team for heading to a “hostile environment” like St. Francis and their Rage Cage and continuing to fight, despite all of the penalties. And, at least in the first half, the fans in that Rage Cage got to see some fireworks on the field.

All five touchdowns were from outside or just at the outer edges of the redzone, starting with Sacred Heart’s 20-yard touchdown pass from McGrath to RL Miller on the Irish’s first drive. McGrath — who completed 17-of-32 passes for 244 yards — would add a second touchdown pass in the second quarter, a 23-yard strike to Keishk on a deep post.

But with two of St. Francis’ top three running backs — senior Kamau Julien and sophomore Kingston Keanaaina — out on Friday, the Lancers relied on Kingston’s older brother Keala to take 30 carries and churn out 108 yards. But it was the arm of quarterback Matthew Daugherty that made the difference.

And the senior was throwing nothing short, either. All three of his second-quarter touchdown passes were floated balls that his receivers ran under. First, a 19-yard fade from the left hash mark to Andrew Adkison in the back-right corner of the end zone with 10:11 left.

Then, on fourth-and-13 from the Irish 31 with 3:52 left, Daugherty floated a pass 40 yards, just in front of the back of the end zone, which senior Derek Gile ran under and made a diving catch for a go-ahead score.

Finally, after a Sacred Heart Cathedral field goal tied the game at 17 with 2:21 left, the Lancers stormed down to the Irish 25 but stalled. With less than a minute left in the first half and facing third-and-10, the Irish sent 6-3, 220-pound Jerry Mixon — who Daugherty said “hits as hard as he looks like he hits” — on a blitz at Daugherty, making the quarterback quickly float a ball down the right sideline for Adkison. The receiver came through with a diving catch for what ended up standing up as the game-winning score.

“I knew I was going to get hit, so I might as well complete a touchdown,” Daugherty said.

Calcagno said of his quarterback, who finished the night 10-for-19 with 201 yards and three touchdowns passing: “He’s pretty darn good. He’s throwing it as he’s getting hit, steps in there and takes a hit and throws a ball against a very good corner… He just made a play. Our guys were making plays and that was pretty fun to watch.”

The Irish (3-3 overall, 1-2 in WCAL play) have the Bruce-Mahoney matchup against St. Ignatius up next week at Kezar Stadium. Evans and Sacred Heart Cathedral will have to learn from the mistakes that let Friday’s game slip through their grasp.

“We just made a lot of bonehead mistakes that cost us in the first half that kind of hurt us,” Evans said. “We knew we had a great gameplan to beat them. That’s why it’s just so frustrating, at this point.”

Meanwhile, St. Francis (3-3, 2-1) will finish WCAL play with three-of-four on the road, starting with Valley Christian next Friday, and the only home game being their big rivalry against Bellarmine on Oct. 28. While Calcagno can see things to clean up, he didn’t want to overlook what the Lancers did on Friday, either.

“We’ve got to be better. We’ve definitely got to be better at doing what we do and just trying to play,” Calcagno said. “It was definitely a sloppy game, from the stands and for the fans, but … we had some guys step up and I was super proud of them. We competed our tail off, so did they and they’re a very good team. It was a battle — that was a fun one.”