Knights roll up shutout

St. Joseph defensive end Alex Munds had been out of action for several weeks with an injury.

He returned to action on Halloween night and did great things for the Knights' defense.

Munz was in on tackle after tackle, and he helped the Knights' defense post their second shutout of the year. St. Joseph defeated Nipomo 34-0 at Al Maguire Field Friday night.

St. Joseph improved to 3-1 in the Los Padres League and 5-3 overall. Nipomo is 0-5, 1-7. If the Knights win one of their remaining two games, they clinch the third and last LPL guaranteed playoff spot.

After a grand total of six yards in the first quarter, the Titans wound up with 13 first downs and 191 yards of total offense. But the Knights kept them out of the end zone, with Munz, defensive lineman Zach Sternjacob and linebacker Phillip Adams primarily responsible for that.

"It was just taking good angles," Munds, who did not start but played most of the time on defense, said of his nice work against the Titans' rushing game. "The scout defense did a good job," of preparing the Knights defense for what it would face.

The Knights got scores Friday night from several people who had been in the St. Joseph scorebook seldom or not at all.

Tailback Brad Escobar scored on a 3-yard run for the first touchdown of the game. He has been in the Knights' scorebook quite often this year.

Tim Schweigert, another one who has scored often, kicked three extra points. The Knights' other scores came on a 15-yard pass from quarterback Casey Cathcart to Ryan Acquistapace, an 8-yard run by Ross Gracia, and runs of 1 and 12 yards from fullback Adam. Backup kicker Michael Priestman booted an extra point.

Neither Acquistapace, Gracia or Priestman had gotten much of a chance to score before Friday night.

"It was real nice tonight," Cathcart said. "We were able to get a lot of people in."

"It was good for us that we were able to get everybody in," said St. Joseph coach Barney Eames. "We hadn't had much of a chance to do that."

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being highest, St. Joseph's performance rated "about a five or six," Munds said. He liked the work the defense did. He also liked the Knights' scoring production.

What none of the Knights sideline liked were two holding penalties that erased touchdowns, and two dropped sure touchdown passes by Knights receivers on good throws by Cathcart.

Still, "I thought our kids played pretty solid ball," Eames said. "We just have to clean up the little things."

The Knights have a week to do that before they play their biggest game of the season to date, at second-place Morro Bay at 7 p.m. next Friday night.

Between now and the Morro Bay game "offense," is what the Knights will probably work most on, Munds said.

Eames thought Nipomo, a first-year varsity team with no seniors, gave a good account of itself.

"They're going to be good, and I thought they played very well tonight," he said. "They're a very scrappy team, and I thought their coaching staff did a good job of keeping them in the game."

"We just can't finish things right now," Nipomo coach Jon Hitchen said. "We'll make half a play, half a block, but we won't finish anything. We've got to be able to do that."

Though the Knights amassed 34 points, turnovers set up two of their touchdowns. Nipomo linebackers Justin Robertson and Bobby Heredia helped their defense keep the Knights from breaking many long runs. Escobar was St. Joseph's leading rusher with 70 yards.

Nipomo came its closest to scoring near the end of the first half. With time winding down, Kyle Houseman got open at the Knights 15. He had to wait a bit on Samm Spears' slightly underthrown pass, but he still caught the ball for a 32-yard gain to the Knights' 11.

Righetti 22, Paso Robles 15

PASO ROBLES - Luke Deras bulled in from two yards out for the winning score as the Warriors rallied for a big PAC-5 League win at Framson Middle School's War Memorial Stadium.

Righetti (2-1, 7-1-1) clinched a playoff berth. Paso Robles (0-3, 4-4) is in the unfamiliar position of having to win its last league game, against Atascadero, to have a chance at even a wild card spot.

After Deras' last touchdown, his second score from two yards out on the night, Matt Marshall caught Jonathan Dally's pass for the last two points.

Paso Robles' hopes were just about extinguished on an interception after Righetti's last score. By the time the Bearcats took over on downs at their own 15, they had only 27 seconds left.

Righetti went ahead 14-0 at halftime on Dally's 1-yard run and a two-yard run by Deras. Tim Trefts kicked the extra point.

But Paso Robles eventually went ahead 15-14. Mitch Monteiro scored from a yard out, and then Bobby Hernandez intercepted Dally's pass and ran 43 yards for a score. Luke Borgault grabbed Casey Larson's two-point conversion pass to put Paso Robles ahead 15-14 with 5:42 left.

The ensuing kickoff was a short one, and Righetti's Steven Smith grabbed it at his 40. He went down there, and then two pass interference penalties (one an easy call to make at the goal line), helped Righetti to its go-ahead touchdown.

Paso Robles held star Righetti back Mark Malangko to 39 yards on 12 carries. Standout Bearcats back Vince Freitas was under 100 yards also. He had 82 yards on 17 carries.

Righetti's regular season finale is at home at 7 p.m. Friday against San Luis Obispo.

Lompoc 29, Morro Bay 6

LOMPOC - The showdown for first place was pretty one-sided.

Quarterback Boo Jackson threw 70 yards to Donald White for one score and ran 11 yards for another as the Braves went to 4-0 in the LPL and 6-2 overall. Morro Bay is 3-1, 5-3.

Morro Bay had a bad night all around. Standout tailback Joe Garcia broke his collarbone on a screen pass in the third quarter. He wound up with just 53 yards, on 14 carries.

David Gaspar led Lompoc's rushers with 71 yards on 11 carries.

SLO 38, Atascadero 0

SAN LUIS OBISPO - The result was assured at halftime. The Tigers led 35-0 then.

After a slow start, the Tigers have gotten their bearings and won five straight. They are 2-0 in the balanced PAC-5 League and 6-1 overall.

San Luis Obispo quarterback Dane Hodgson scored on runs of 51 and 37 yards and threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Brett Lowe.

Hodgson had 105 yards on just five carries. Weston Kelly led the Greyhounds with 72 yards on 14 rushes.

November 1, 2003