Sacred Heart Prep strikes late to King's Academy

“We made plays, big plays, when we had to ... but hats off to King’s Academy,” Grieb said. “They’re a good football team, and they’ve got some really good players who played really tough today. So, a lot of credit to them for the struggles that we had today.”

SHP (3-1) had moved the first-down chains for just the third time on the afternoon earlier in the possession, before the Gators unleashed the Bamdad screen. Grieb installed the play earlier in the week, and SHP unveiled it while facing third-and-7 from the Knights’ 48-yard line.

Quarterback Nico Pollioni had completed just four passes to that point — the longest, an 11-yard shot to junior Charlie Ford late in the third quarter — and nearly had his screen pass into the flat tackled for a loss when Bamdad got hit just after the catch. Bamdad, as it turns out, can be a tough guy to bring down.

“He’s a guy that’s strong and sneaky and shifty,” Grieb said, “and then it looks like you’ve got him and he just kind of slides away from you. And he did it about three or four times on that run.”

Bamdad not only broke the initial tackle, he trucked up the sideline about 10 yards before crossing the field, with a company of Knights defending between him and the end zone.

“Honestly, the entire time I was running, there was always a blue jersey in front of me,” Bamdad said. “So, I was never really sure if I was going to end up going in or not. But I trusted the process, trusted my vision, kept my head up, didn’t look down, didn’t look down, and kept on making cuts, going left and going right, and it paid off in the end.”

Bamdad broke two downfield tackles as he crossed all the way to the left corner of the end zone, where he was mobbed by his teammates upon hitting pay dirt.

TKA (2-1) outgained the Gators 259-86 in total yards, though Pollioni did happily take a 32-yard loss on the final play of the game to run out the clock.

The Knights converted 16 first downs in the game, as sophomore quarterback Ricky Gutierrez enjoyed an efficient day exploiting holes in the middle of the field, going 16-of-22 for 189 yards with two touchdowns — a performance that was supercharged by SHP losing senior linebacker Maxime Morelle to injury early in the second half.

“Our depth is something that we’ve got to always overcome,” Grieb said. “And to get some of these younger players a chance to get in the game, I think in the long run helps up. But sometimes you’ve got to learn those lessons in a game.”

The Knights consistently ran slant plays over the middle, with an array of playmaking receivers — juniors Jaiden Flores (six catches, 97 yards), Adrian Barnett (six catches, 87 yards. one TD) and Aaron Duncan (four catches, 63 yards, one TD) — putting on a show.

“I think they just wanted to stop our guys on the outside,” TKA head coach Dante Perez said. “We’ve got some dangerous weapons that can change — one play, they can go the distance. They were guarding the outside and they were trying to limit the vertical threat from the outside. So, we find the soft spot that’s inside.”

SHP’s defense won the battle up front, however, with an early fumble recovery by senior linebacker Atelea Tau setting up the game’s first score.

The Gators’ first possession went three-and-out, and the ensuing punt by senior Nathan Fox nearly spelled disaster when the snap sailed high. Fox, though, made a leaping grab to bring it down, and get off the punt under duress, producing a gem that tumbled out of bounds at TKA’s 4-yard line.

On the following play, the Knights fumbled with Tau recovering at the 4. After a TKA offside penalty, the Gators blasted it in with a 2-yard run from Morelle to make it 7-0.

“It’s huge,” Grieb said of the turnover. “I just changes the whole momentum.”

Morelle’s TD run marked the first points surrendered by TKA this season, after the Knights recorded back-to-back shutouts of 35-0 against Aptos and 58-0 against Fremont-Oakland.

SHP had a chance to double its lead after TKA was forced to punt, with the long snap sailing high and the punter running it down to cover it at the Knights’ 13. That’s when the yellow flags started flying, though, as the Gators penalized for a personal foul, backing them up to the 27. Another SHP personal foul on the ensuing play pushed it back to the 48 for second-and-35.

Both teams would combine to rack up nearly 200 yards in penalties, 102 yards for TKA, and 96 1/2 for SHP.

“Guys get caught up in the emotion of the game,” Grieb said. “We talk a lot about it during the week. But those things sometimes aren’t as long lasting as you’d hope for. And we did have a few personal fouls, which we’ve struggled with that all season, and we’ve got to continue to get better if we want to be a team that wins late in the year.”

Then came the back-and-forth on the scoreboard. TKA tied it in the second quarter with a 14-play, 74-yard march, capped by a 5-yard touchdown catch by Barnett on a timing fade over tight 1-on-1 coverage in the back corner of the end zone.

It stayed that way until midway through the third quarter, when SHP benefitted from another fumble recovery, this time with senior defensive end Albert Cesena Real diving to the bottom of a pile to cradle the pigskin and hold off an array of jabs, pokes and grabs until the referee crew unearthed him to award SHP possession.

“A lot of yelling, a lot of punching in there,” Cesena Real said. “You’ve got to grip it.”

Two plays later, senior running back Cooper Karros bounced off the right side and galloped 46 yards for a touchdown, putting the Gators back ahead 14-7.

After the teams traded punts, the Knights went back on the march, using a 10-play drive to score on a 3-yard run by junior running back Drew Martinez (15 carries for a game-high 52 yards).

What followed was one of the most impactful penalties of the game. It wasn’t one of the many 15-yard penalties, but a 1 1/2-yard encroachment call against SHP prior to the point-after kick. Emboldened by the half-the-distance penalty, TKA marched its two-point conversion formation onto the field. That conversion attempt, a blast up the gut, was met by the linebacker Fox, who stopped it cold to deny the Knights the go-ahead conversion, and maintain the lead for SHP at 14-13.

“That’s like a drill where you’ve got your two best guys, and they’re just going at each other,” Grieb said. “And they just stoned him. And then you saw the pursuit from the defense come over and just finish him off.”

TKA did eventually take the lead back, going on the attack quickly after an SHP three-and-out. The Knights took over at their 42 and needed just four plays, capped a third-and-11 look with Gutierrez connecting with Duncan over the middle, leaving Duncan low-flying to a 45-yard score to give TKA a 19-14 advantage.

Once again, however, SHP’s goal-line conversion defense stepped up, as TKA went for two again, only to have a short pass completion stopped at the 1 on a stiff tackle by Cesena Real.

“He was going to get in, so I just had to make sure,” Cesena Real said. “So I just pursued over there to push him out of the end zone. Thankfully he didn’t get in.”

That set the stage for the Bamdad screen. But even after swinging ahead 22-19 with 5:24 to go, the Gators still had to produce a defensive stop.

TKA faced fourth-and-inches at its own 36, and moved the chains with a 1-yard pickup by Turner. It was the first of two first downs on consecutive plays, as an SHP interception was called back for pass interference to move the chains again. The Knights later faced fourth-and-12 from midfield, but converted it with a 14-yard slant from Gutierrez to Flores, with a 15-yard personal foul penalty against the Gators tacked on, moving it to SHP’s 22.

But then the sack monster reared its head, as junior defensive tackle Jack Hansen broke through to drop Gutierrez for a 6-yard loss. TKA’s next two pass attempts fell incomplete, with the Knights getting penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct on the third-down try. One last-gasp pass on fourth-and-31 fell incomplete, all but wrapping up the win for SHP.

“The whole game was a dogfight out there,” Cesena Real said. “We were all pumped up the whole game on defense. We didn’t let off the gas at all. We had to make up for offense, our struggles there. So, I feel like that last stop we had just pumped us all up to go get that win.”