Even with the game practically in the books with a 28-0 lead Friday night at Hitchen Stadium, the Santa Maria football team may have taken part in a dubious record against Nipomo.

With a few ticks left on the clock, Santa Maria fumbled the ball and Nipomo's Caleb Courtney picked it up and ran 32 untouched yards into the endzone with 1.1 seconds left in the game.

The Titans' point-after was no good, and Nipomo lined up to kick the ball back to Santa Maria.

Nipomo's kick sailed out of bounds at the Santa Maria 38. Rather than call for a re-kick, the Saints took the field position and set to run out the clock.

However, instead of taking a knee, the Saints ran a play from scrimmage, fumbled the ball again and watched Nathan McGee run the ball 40-yards for another touchdown, putting the score at 28-12 with no time left.

"That's a ray of sunshine," said Nipomo coach John Hitchen, whose team was shut out 56-0 last week against Morro Bay. "Right then, coach (Matt) Soenksen said, 'We need to score for morale.' He was right and it worked out that way."

He said the plays were the result of two focused players.

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"Caleb was in the right place at the right time and was heads-up about it," he said. "Nathan just made an aggressive play."

Despite the two late scores, Santa Maria improved to 1-1 in the Los Padres League by dominating the first 47:58 of play.

Late in the first quarter, Juan Alcantar scored the first of his three touchdowns on an 11-yard run with 4:36 left. The score was set up by a 36-yard run by Ricky Iniguez on the previous play.

Victor Velasco's extra-point gave the Saints a 7-0 lead.

On their next possession, the Saints executed a 10-play, 52-yard drive that culminated with an 18-yard run by Billy Kennedy. Velasco again converted the extra point.

Earlier in the drive, Kennedy picked up 5 yards on a fourth-and-two situation to keep the push going.

The Saints were 3-for-3 on fourth down conversions in the game.

"It was just a matter of us gaining some confidence," said Santa Maria head coach Jim Doyle. "Going on fourth down and gaining those fourth downs gave us that confidence."

With 1:02 left in the first half, Santa Maria scored again when Alcantar ran the ball in from 6-yards out, and Velasco's extra point went through the uprights for a 21-0 halftime lead.

The Saints gained 194 total yards (188 rushing, 6 passing) in the first half, while holding Nipomo to 75 total yards (52 rushing, 23 passing).

The Saints registered their final score 52 seconds into the fourth quarter on a 2-yard run by Alcantar. Again, Velasco converted the point-after for a 28-0 lead.

The Titans put together a strong drive late in the fourth quarter, gaining 46 yards and working to the Saints' 42 on a 10-yard run by Thomas Delay and consecutive 18-yard runs by Samm Spears.

However, a 5-yard false start penalty pushed the Titans back before the next play, and a Spears' pass was intercepted by Chris Hight with 41.1 seconds to end the drive.

For Santa Maria, Alcantar finished with 85 yards on 16 carries, Kennedy went for 77 yards on 14 carries, Iniguez gained 50 yards on six carries and Gilbert Arguijo had 74 yards on 13 carries.

Doyle said getting the ball to a lot of Saints is part of the team's gameplan.

"That's the way we run things," he said. "We're an option team and we're going to run inside and try to get outside. That's part of our offense."

Kennedy finished the night 1-for-3 through the air for six yards.

For Nipomo, Delay led the team with 46 yards on nine carries, while Spears had 41 yards on three carries and Courtney had 26 yards on eight carries.

Hitchen said he's been waiting for a solid performance from Delay for a few weeks.

"I've been riding Thomas for about three weeks to come in and play hard, play consistently and play every down," he said. "I think he's starting to understand that."

Next week, the Saints will host Morro Bay, while the Titans will host Cabrillo.

Doyle said getting the win over the Titans will only help his team.

"We have Morro Bay at home," he said. "We played tough against San Luis and we actually should have won that game. So we're looking at this as a momentum-swinger for us going against a very tough Morro Bay team."

Hitchen said he hopes the Titans, now 0-2 in the LPAL, will take the final 1.1 seconds of the game into next week's contest.

"The sun is going to come up tomorrow now," he said. "We hope to continue to build on that right now. It's no easy task. We have four games left and we're going to take our best shots."

October 11, 2003