Santa Maria is not quite there yet.

But they are certainly close, as seen by the Saints' competitive 34-12 loss to Atascadero at Dave Boyd Field on Friday night.

"We hung in there," said Santa Maria coach Shawn Ramirez. "If we can just improve and finish the game, we're going to be fine."

After an impressive 63-yard scoring drive on their opening series, the Saints nearly pulled off a successful on-side kick.

But despite making the recovery, it was ruled that the ball did not travel the necessary 10 yards.

Later trailing 14-6 in the second quarter, Santa Maria cornerback Julian Ortiz had his hands on an interception at the Atascadero 30-yard line with nothing but daylight ahead of him.

But Ortiz could not hold on.

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And right before halftime with the Greyhounds looking to extend their lead, the Saints' defensive unit came up big - stopping Atascadero cold on the 1-yard line to remain only eight points behind at the break.

But despite taking the momentum into the locker room, the Saints could not carry it over as Atascadero scored three straight touchdowns to start the second half.

"We had a good goal-line stand. That was huge and our kids were fired up," said Ramirez. "(The Greyhounds) are physical and they kind of came out and took it to us the second half, but we hung in there. We threw the ball."

Junior quarterback Daniel Gauna, a first-year starter, finished with solid numbers in the air - completing 13-of-24 pass attempts for 105 yards. Gauna also accounted for both Santa Maria touchdowns with a pair of short runs.

"(His passing) has improved immensely just through this game, just his ball placement," said Ramirez of Gauna. "He's not throwing interceptions. He's throwing the ball where it's supposed to be. We had a few dropped balls, but we improved quite a bit. If we get better every week, we should be OK."

The Greyhounds turned to their ground game to pull away in the second half with backs Rickey Taylor (173 yards, TD) and Josh Vanalfen (67 yards, 2 TDs) leading the charge. Quarterback Gunnar Jespersen (7-of-10 passing for 84 yards) and Tyler Manley also had rushing touchdowns.

"The second half, our offense started clicking. I think the fact that they probably had a couple of guys going both ways they kind of wore down in the second half," said Atascadero coach Vic Cooper. "We came out in the second half and, offensively, executed the way we were supposed to be and the defense really did a lot of bending but they didn't break."

Santa Maria did move the ball on offense - with tailback Gabriel Rodriguez rushing for 93 yards on 11 carries - but did not find the back of the end zone after its opening drive until late in the fourth quarter. The 79-yard scoring drive was capped by Gauna's one-yard TD run.

"Our goal is to get into league and try to get better by the time we get to league, so I saw some improvements," said Ramirez. "Like I said that's a solid football team and they came out and got after us a little bit."

But despite the 22-point victory for Atascadero, Cooper was not completely satisfied with his team's performance - instead praising the efforts of Santa Maria.

"That looked like a team that was ready to play in the first half. ... I really think Coach Ramirez is doing a great job and they just basically outhustled us, outhit us, outplayed us in the first half," said Cooper. "They came out of the shoots ready to go and I think we probably, our kids at least, were a little overconfident."

The Santa Maria receiving corps had a solid day with Ortiz making three catches for 63 yards, Jacob Zarate snagging six for 24 yards, and Jason Balewa grabbing four for 18 yards.

"The first drive the kids put on a couple of new things that they didn't see, and then I thought we missed some opportunities with turnovers," said Ramirez, whose defense could not capitalize on a handful of Atascadero fumbles. "They bumbled the ball on the ground quite a bit and we couldn't jump on it."

The Saints (1-2) jump right back into action next Friday as they head to Taft, while the Greyhounds (3-0) travel to Seaside of Monterey.

Sept. 24, 2005