"Gentlemen," St. Joseph coach Barney Eames said to his players after they had just extended their season for at least another week, "A win's a win. You had 14 points, they had six."

The third-ranked Knights had just survived a spectacular case of stone hands and held off El Segundo, 14-6, at Al Maguire Field Friday night in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division X Football Playoffs.

St. Joseph (10-1) hits the road for the quarterfinals. They will play at Los Angeles Cathedral or La Puente Bassett at 7:30 p.m. next Friday night.

St. Joseph finished second in the Los Padres League. El Segundo (5-5-1) finished third in the Pioneer League.

The Knights put the ball on the ground 10 times Friday evening - and lost the ball twice. "I don't remember seeing anything like that before," said Eames, who has coached a lot of years with a lot of teams. This season is his third with St. Joseph.

Brad Escobar made the biggest save for St. Joseph. On second-down-and-goal from the Eagles 9, he dove and recovered his own fumbled pitch back at the 19. On the next play, quarterback Casey Cathcart lofted a pass to 6-3 Kevin Buchanan, who had gotten behind 5-8 Eagles defensive back Kris Atmore in the back of the end zone.

Atmore reached for the ball, but he had no chance. Buchanan reached high, grabbed the ball and then tumbled into the end zone for the winning score with 8:30 left to play. The touchdown snapped a 6-6 tie.

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"That was a perfect pass," Buchanan said afterward.

Escobar scored the first touchdown of the game on a 14-yard run in the first quarter. El Segundo's Pat Rooney snared a 13-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tyson Hawley with 19.3 seconds left to play in the third.

In between and afterward there was a whole lot of good defense and a whole lot of ugly football, including both teams' kickers booting line drives on extra points that didn't come close.

After Cathcart fumbled a snap for the third time for St. Joseph fumble number 10 someone on the Knights sideline asked, "Why all the fumbles?"

"That ball is freaking jinxed, man," another player replied. Both spoke after Escobar bailed St. Joseph out again by recovering the ball at his 33 with 6:10 left to play.

"It seemed like we were our own worst enemy," said Eames.

El Segundo could say the same thing about itself.

The Knights got lucky twice on the same Eagles drive in the third quarter. A holding call penalty nullified Atmore's 43-yard tackle breaking catch-and-run touchdown on a swing pass from Hawley.

Later in the drive, Hawley overthrew Eunique Williams who had gotten behind David Wolfe and Patrick Cusack in St. Joseph's end zone.

Illegal procedure calls took El Segundo out of its first two drives. Then, with the Eagles at fourth-down-and-one at their own 43 and all set to go for a first down they took their time in the huddle and were hit with a delay-of-game penalty.

Scratch any notion of going for it. Enter punter Daniel Swiggum with 6:22 left to play.

Most of the time the Knights defense didn't need any help from the Eagles. El Segundo had eight first downs. Six came in the third quarter. None came in the fourth.

Linemen Buchanan, Ryan San Juan and Zachary Sternjacob, and linebackers Brandon Merlo and Philip Adam - before he aggravated a knee injury and had to leave the game - led the Knights' defensive surge.

"That was one of the best games we've played," defensively, Buchanan said. "But we can do better."

"Our defense really saved us tonight," Eames said.

El Segundo had 10 penalties, for 72 yards. The Knights were flagged six times, and five of their infractions came in the second quarter.

Escobar racked up 141 yards on 25 carries, but the Knights kept floundering on offense. The fumbles had something to do with it. So did the Eagles defense, led by linebackers Sean Post and Ray Lopez.

Buchanan thought fumbles were the biggest factor for the Knights' productivity shortage on offense. "We should have dominated them on offense," he said. "Too many mistakes."

St. Joseph's big-play receiver Dominic Catayas did not play in the first half because of an injured ankle. He caught passes for 14 and 21 yards in the third quarter and then had to leave again.

However, Adam and Catayas "should be all right," to play next Friday evening, Eames said.

Nov. 20, 2004