In the fourth quarter, Brad Escobar ran through the tackles of Morro Bay linebacker Steve Dover and defensive back Hans Guy at the Pirates 35. He sprinted into the end zone for a 43-yard scoring run.

That play pretty much summed up St. Joseph's football Friday night.

In the third quarter standout Morro Bay running back Corey Stollmeyer, bottled up a good part of the game, ran 44 yards to the Knights 3, his longest run of the evening.

Then he fumbled, and St. Joseph defensive back Ryan Adlesh recovered. That play pretty much summed up Morro Bay's fooball Friday night.

Escobar finished the scoring with the 43-yarder in the Knights' 26-0 win at Al Maguire Field. Meanwhile, Stollmeyer fumbled four times and lost three of them. The game was the Los Padres League opener for the Knights (4-0-0 overall) and the Pirates (3-1-0).

"We practiced hard all week, the coaches had a great game plan and we executed it," two-way St. Joseph lineman Jake Rooney said. Rooney had a big game at offensive tackle and at defensive tackle.

Rooney said the Knights really did play Friday night the way they practiced all week.

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"I'm very proud of the kids," St. Joseph coach Barney Eames said. "They played very well."

The Knights were rated second in CIF Southern Section Division X going into the game, and Morro Bay was ranked fourth.

But St. Joseph's front people outplayed Morro Bay's front people most of the night. Then the Pirates took themselves out of two promising second-half drives when they did get something going.

On the drive before Stollmeyer's fumble, someone committed a personal foul after a four-yard pass to Stollmeyer had put the ball on the Knights 9. Intead of being there, Morro Bay was at the 24 thanks to the foul. The Pirates lost the ball on downs.

Meanwhile, St. Joseph finished off most of its promising drives.

In the first half, "They were really overplaying the run and leaving people open," said St. Joseph quarterback Casey Cathcart. So he tossed touchdown passes of eight yards to tight end Kevin Buchanan and 50 yards to wide receiver Dominic Catayas.

"The play action was there," Cathcart said. "Kevin's a good target (he's 6-0, 205), and Dominic was running open." Catayas worked his way open enough to rack up 107 yards in receptions. He caught five passes. Buchanan, who caught a 20-yarder before his touchdown pass, had St. Joseph's other two receptions.

In the second half, "It was smashmouth football most of the time, 'Barney Ball,'" said Escobar.

"Barney Ball" is the name given to describe the tough running game Eames likes his teams to play, and the Knights did well enough at it Friday night to rack up 252 yards rushing.

Escobar ran through holes Knights linemen Rooney, David Vaquez and center Zach Clayton, among others, opened up enough to amass 161 yards on 19 carries. Philip Adam had 66 yards on 13 rushes and faught his way into the end zone on a 1-yard run in the third quarter.

Rooney said Knights linemen on both sides of the ball "just had a real good surge," all evening. "Easily," he replied when he was asked if the Knights had blocked better Friday night than they had all season before.

As for the Knights' defense, linemen Rooney, Colin Phillips and Zachary Sternjacob and linebacker Brandon Merlo helped the unit bottle up Stollmeyer a good part of the evening.

Stollmeyer wound up with 137 yards on 23 carries, but runs of 43, 22 and 12 yards accounted for a good chunk of that.

"Everything we did in practice (on defense) was centered around stopping him," said Eames. "But we didn't overplay anybody."

"They're just a little better than we are up front, and we just couldn't block everybody," Morro Bay coach John Andree said. "The kids were getting a little frustrated."

Besides his big game at linebacker, Merlo pinned the Pirates inside their 10 with soft line drive punts of 27 and 19 yards.

St. Joseph's varsity, junior varsity and freshman football teams all racked up shutouts this week.

Oct. 3, 2004