LOMPOC -- St. Joseph High was in contention in this football game for the first 21 minutes.

Lompoc quickly put the Knights out of the running the last three minutes before halftime, and the Braves celebrated their Homecoming with a 48-0 Los Padres League rout at Huyck Stadium Friday night.

The Braves pushed their LPL record to 2-0 with their third consecutive win. Lompoc is 4-2 overall. St. Joseph dropped to 1-1, 1-5.

Afterward, St. Joseph coach Barney Eames did not sound like a coach whose team had just lost 48-0.

"Our guys played hard the whole way; they never quit," Eames said. "Going in, we figured we were probably in over our heads. We've got a real young team, and Lompoc's a quality team. On any given night, they can play with anyone."

Lineman Ryan Acquistapace led a St. Joseph defense that held its own most of the first half against a Lompoc running game that had crushed Santa Ynez and Atascadero the last two weeks.

The Braves had done enough on offense for Robert Adams' 30-yard touchdown run on a hole opened up by right guard Nathan Tremblay in the first quarter, and Nate Mendoza's 1-yard scoring run with 4:17 left in the first half. During a timeout, Eames told his players, "You're in great shape in this game! You're doing good things on both sides of the ball."

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Immediately after Eames spoke those words, David Gaspar took a punt at his own 32. Two Knights hit him there, but he bounced off of them. He shredded some more tackles at his 40, and suddenly he was sprinting for a 68-yard touchdown run.

"I don't believe it!," an exasperated Eames said to someone on the Knights sideline after Gaspar scored.

With 1:07 left before halftime, Lompoc quarterback Andrew Jones connected with Joey Gastelo for 44 yards to the St. Joseph 3. Sean Wolfe put a good hit on Gastelo there, and Gastelo fumbled the ball into the end zone.

No one was around the ball for a few seconds, then Lompoc's Michael Adams charged forward. He recovered the ball for a touchdown.

"I was still kind of ticked off from the play before (some extracurricular activity),..." Adams said. When Gastelo fumbled, "At first, I thought it was an incomplete pass Then I saw an official throw the white sandbag, meaning it was a fumble, right in front of my face. I just ran and fell on the ball."

"I was standing there thinking 'will somebody please get on the ball," Lompoc coach Robin Luken said with a laugh. "The ball seemed to just lie there forever."

On the kickoff after Michael Adams' alert fumble recovery, he made the big play again. Adams hit Luis Escobar at the Knights 32. Escobar fumbled, Gaspar scooped the ball up and he ran in for the score. Armando Gutierrez's fifth extra point kick made it 35-0 at that point.

Things were academic after that. In the third quarter, Mendoza sprinted straight up the middle for a touchdown from 42 yards out after center Michael Morales opened up a a good hole for him.

With 26 seconds left in the quarter, Matt Winn finished a 75-yard drive by ramming into the end zone from about six inches away.

The Knights had not come close to scoring before then, but their second string offense mounted a good drive against Lompoc's reserves in the fourth quarter.

Starting from their 38, the Knights drove inside the Lompoc 1. But Nick Spada fumbled trying to get into the end zone, and Lompoc's Nick Brooks recovered.

October 19, 2002