St. Joseph High School's group owned enough of this football game to win handily.

Dominic Catayas caught touchdown passes of 13 and 35 yards from Casey Cathcart, and Philip Adam bolted for scoring runs of 17 and 50 yards as the Knights defeated Atascadero 27-7 in their season home opener at Al Maguire Field Friday night.

St. Joseph moved to 2-0 with the non-league win. Atascadero is 0-2.

On a scale of 1-10 for the Knights, Catayas gave the game "about an eight, to be honest.

"Don't get me wrong, I thought we played well. But sometimes we get up by a little bit and we kind of get settled in. We just have to keep our focus, keep up the intensity.

"We started out crisp, but then, I don't know," St. Joseph coach Barney Eames said after his team was outplayed the last 16 minutes after dominating most of the first 32. "We got off to a great start. Maybe things were too easy for us," then.

St. Joseph's Brad Escobar took the opening kickoff at the Knights 15, burst through a hole up the middle and kicker Travis Jones had to make a saving tackle at the Atascadero 43.

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Six plays later, Catayas got outside of Atascadero defensive back Matthew Mack and pulled in the 13-yard touchdown pass from Cathcart.

"We just ran a simple out," Catayas, who had four catches for a total of 70 yards, said. "I got position on the guy."

Cathcart's 20-yard pass to Catayas near the end of the first quarter set St. Joseph up at the Greyhounds 35, and then Catayas screened a Greyhounds defender on a block well enough for Adam to get outside for a 17-yard touchdown run.

Zachary Sternjacob recovered an Atascadero fumble at the Greyhounds 35 with 46 seconds left in the half. Ryan Adlesh dropped Cathcart's pass in the end zone, but Catayas pulled in Cathcart's pass over the middle in the end zone the next play.

"We just ran a post," Catayas said. "They were playing the run - I could see the safety come up."

"Our guy had position - he just got beat to the ball," said Atascadero coach Vic Cooper. Cooper is in his first year as Greyhounds head coach after 14 years as an assistant.

The Greyhounds intercepted Cathcart twice, getting great field position both times. However, both subsequent Atascadero drives went for naught.

In the first half, Neil Tidwell's 10-yard interception return gave the ball to the Greyhounds the ball at the St. Joseph 20. But a five-yard penalty cost kicker David Babka, and he was a tad wide and a tad short on a 43-yard field goal try.

Rickey Taylor intercepted Cathcart's pass five yards deep in the end zone and returned the ball to St. Joseph's 43 in the third quarter. But Matt McCormack recovered quarterback Jones' fumble at the Knights 40.

Other than an impressive scoring drive that spanned 5:08 and covered 68 yards, the Greyhounds couldn't do much against a defense sparked by Knights linemen Sternjacob, Matt Ruiz and Kevin Buchanan and linebacker Adam.

Tidwell finished Atascadero's scoring march with a 4-yard run with 11:34 left to play. Linebacker Alex Downs had a huge game for the Greyhounds, and he helped them keep St. Joseph to one first down after Adam's 50-yard scoring jaunt in the third quarter.

"I thought the defense played a great game," Eames said. The unit came up with four Atascadero turnovers - two fumbles, two interceptions.

The 'Hounds held Escobar, the Knights' leading rusher going in, to 43 yards on 13 carries. Adam, however, had 135 on 11. He also boomed a 59-yarder on his first of four punts.

Sept. 18, 2004