The Lancers lose heartbreaker to end title run
Teammates comfort Christian Wiley who came inches away from sending Amat to the CIF Finals
December 4, 2014
The Bishop Amat Lancers’ football team was inches away from advancing to the CIF-SS Pac-5 Finals on Friday night when Christian Wiley was stopped at the goal-line on a two-point conversion attempt, which would have given Amat a one-point victory.
Ultimately, the Lancers lost their biggest game in 16 years to the Corona Centennial Huskies, 38-37, in a contest that more than lived up to its expectations.
The Huskies quickly took a 7-0 lead on a passing play to the highly recruited four-star junior receiver Jevon McKinley.
After a couple of punts by both teams, the Lancers got on the board with a 33-yard field goal from Niko Carrillo to cut the lead to four points.
When the Huskies got the ball back, they wasted no time extending their lead with several passing plays to McKinley, setting up a 25-yard quarterback draw for a touchdown. The missed extra point made it 13-3, Huskies.
After another Amat punt, McKinley caught a 77-yard touchdown pass to give the Huskies a 20-3 lead.
But the Lancers fought back before the end of the half.
Finally, Amat was able to do something with the ball and with an encouraging drive that concluded with a Christian Wiley touchdown from the 1-yard line, the Huskies went into halftime with a 20-10 lead.
Amat received the ball to start the second half, but Wiley fumbled the pooch kickoff and Centennial recovered at the Lancers’ 8-yard line.
The Amat defense managed to hold Centennial to a field goal to keep the lead still possible to overcome. 23-10, Huskies.
And this time, being able to hold on to the ball, Tre Sydney ran the ball back to the Huskies’ 46.
Right after that were two amazing pass plays delivered from Ryder Ruiz to the Lancers two top receivers. The first to Brandon Arconado which put the Lancers at the Husky 13 yard line. The next to Tyler Vaughns for an Amat touchdown to make it 23-17 Huskies.
After a short kick from Niko Carillo, the Huskies scored on yet another passing play to McKinley. This one for 73 yards. 30-17, Huskies.
This didn’t phase Brandon Arconado however, as he came right back to score an 83-yard touchdown for the Lancers to cut the lead and make it 30-24 Huskies.
With a missed field goal for the Huskies and a punt for the Lancers, the third quarter ended with the same score.
With the possibility of this quarter being the last 12 minutes of Lancer football the class of 2015 would ever play in, or cheer in, or watch as students in, and with the season and CIF Championship hopes on the line, the entire Amat Nation rallied together around this one team and literally locked arms together for one final hurrah.
To start the quarter, the Huskies were looking to cut the hearts out of our Lancers, but on yet another passing play to McKinley, Tre Sydney was able to pick off the Husky quarterback in the end zone and Amat would get the back ball.
However, the Lancers were forced to punt the ball again, but a bad snap created another Lancer turnover as the Huskies took over at the Amat 10-yard line.
Another Husky touchdown, this time a run play, made the score 36-24, and, with McKinley coming through once again, converted a 2-point conversion extending their lead to two touchdowns.
Down two touchdowns, the Lancers needed a miracle to try and win this game and with gold powder from the dog pound in substitution for pixie dust, the Lancers began to show some life.
After receiving the ball, Vaughns broke a huge passing play to put the ball on the Husky 5-yard line which set up a Ryder Ruiz quarterback touchdown run cut the lead to seven with three minutes to go in the game.
Niko Carrillo tried an onside kick to try and get the ball back but it failed and the Huskies took over at midfield.
With three minutes to go and great field position for the Huskies, the Lancers hope was fading, but the dog pound still pushed them on.
Centennial’s drive pushed on, and with a minute to go, the Lancers needed one more moment of greatness to etch their name into the Amat history books. Such a moment could only be delivered by the heavily recruited senior linebacker Anthony Camargo.
With the Huskies running back set to score on a long run, Camargo came out of nowhere and delivered a hit so hard that it stunned the running back, and when Tre Sydney hit him for a second time, the ball came out and Amat recovered the fumble, temporarily saving the season.
Down just one touchdown and a minute left, the Lancers wasted no time in getting to work as Ruiz delivered three long passes to his receivers.
With just 40 seconds to go, the Lancers knew what they had to do, Ruiz and his already broken finger delivered a pass between two Husky defenders to Arconado, who shook both of them off and scored a touchdown that brought the lead to just one point.
“We’re not done yet” chants came from the Amat student section as the Lancers lined up for the two-point conversion to try and win the game.
They handed the ball of to Wiley, normally a linebacker, and one referee signaled the conversion was good. However, the celebration from the Amat fans turned silent when the call was overruled and the conversion was ruled no good.
The Lancers tried an onside kick to get the ball back one last time, but the kick went out of bounds and along with the Lancer season, the Huskies ran away with the ball in victory.
