"Where in the world is the home field advantage?" Saint Joseph High football coach Barney Eames wondered aloud shortly after his Knights fell to the Lompoc Braves 23-14 at Al Maguire Field Friday night.

Where indeed?

After six games, the Knights are 3-3 (1-1 in the Los Padres League) but have yet to win a game at home.

In a showdown of two of the top teams in the LPL, the Braves (2-0, 4-2) simply wore down the Knights to come back from 14-3 second quarter deficit.

"I think both teams played their best games of the year," said Eames. "I think we just a little bit out of sync."

"I wasn't sure how our kids would play tonight," said Lompoc coach Rob Luken. "Seven of them were involved in a car accident after the JV game last night." Quarterback Boo Jackson was hospitalized briefly after the accident.

For the most part, the teams played each other to a standstill. This was a game that turned on a handful of key plays. Mistakes by one side led to scores by the other and, in the end, St. Joseph came up on the wrong side of the final score.

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The Braves dominated the statistics, piling up 360 yards on the ground.

Running back David Gaspar led the way with 163 yards on 21 carries with two touchdowns. The Braves' Jackson, showing no effects of the accident, added 135 on 16 carries with one TD. Jackson was just 3-for-7 passing for 32 yards.

For the Knights, running back Brad Escobar was held to just 81 yards on 21 carries. Quarterback Casey Cathcart was 12-for-24 through the air, good for 130 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Lompoc's Jeremey Signorelli fumbled on the first play of the game.

St. Joe's Philip Adam pounced on the ball and the Knights had it first-and-ten on the Lompoc 31-yard line just over 1-minute into the game.

From there, the Knights took six plays to score, capping the short drive with a 7-yard pass from Cathcart to wide receiver Jacob Boster. Tim Schweigert's extra point put St. Joseph up 7-0 with 9:15 remaining in the first quarter.

The Braves' offense sputtered but refused to quit and with 2:16 left in the first quarter completed an 11-play, 67-yard drive with a 25-yard Armando Gutierrez field goal to make the score 7-3.

The Knights came right back. Aided by two Lompoc penalties; a Lompoc offsides, with the Knights going for it on a fourth-down-and-one play and a roughing the passer penalty later in the drive, Escobar completed an eight-play, 60-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. Schweigert's kick made it 14-3 St. Joe.

But that was it for the Knights on this night.

With 2:08 remaining in the first half, the Braves began what would be a 77-yard march to the end zone.

It began with a 14-yard pass completion from Jackson to Gutierrez. Gaspar picked up 36-yards on a great run, blasting straight up the middle then veering to the right sideline before Knights defenders could chase him down. Four more running plays completed the drive with Gaspar bulling it in from the 7. Gutierrez's PAT pulled the Braves to 14-10 with :23-seconds left in the half.

Late in the third quarter, Jackson ran it in from the two-yard line, capping a 9-play, 64-yard drive and putting the Braves in the lead. Another Gutierrez PAT made it 17-10 Lompoc.

"We just wore down," said Eames. "Our offense just wasn't keeping our defense off the field."

The Knights still has their chances.

They stopped the Braves on a fourth-and-one at their own 23 with 11:12 left in the fourth quarter. But St. Joseph couldn't move the ball and had to punt it away.

The Braves marched down the field on the next drive. But with a first-and-goal on the Knights' one-yard-line, Gutierrez fumbled and the Knights Dominic Catayas pounced on the ball.

The Saints drive stalled after Gaspar, now playing defense, tipped away a Cathcart pass intended for Boster. The Knights were forced to punt with 4:21 left in the game.

The Braves sealed the win with a 9-play, 59-yard, clock-killing drive. The final play, a spectacular 40-yard touchdown run by Gaspar, put the Braves ahead 23-14 (the PAT was no good) with just 1:16 left in the game.

October 18, 2003