Nipomo's football team pushed hard in the fourth quarter Friday night.

The Titans just had a little too far to push.

In the last 9:53, Nipomo quarterback Mason Sperakos threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Brent Seguine, and Bobby Heredia scored on a 1-yard run for the Titans. But the home team couldn't quite overcome a 24-point deficit, and Morro Bay won this Los Padres League game 27-18.

The Pirates improved to 2-1 in the LPL and 4-2-0 overall. Nipomo is 0-3, 0-6-0.

”We've been solid all year,“ Nipomo coach Jon Hitchen said. ”But when you push, and push and push you're going to either get over the top or fall off the cliff. We keep falling off.“

This time the Titans did give themselves a chance, though, when they seemed out of contention.

Until early in the fourth quarter, Morro Bay had controlled the line of scrimmage most of the way. The Pirates' Kevin Scott wound up with 124 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns, and Morro Bay looked all set to put away a comfortable win when Ryan Cummings bulled in from a yard out with 9:53 to play. Kevin Hames' point after kick made it 27-3.

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The Titans thought they had recovered a Ryland Lapp fumble at the one the play before, but the officials ruled Lapp's knee was down before the ball came out.

After Hames' conversion kick, the Titans put together a 63-yard scoring drive. Sperakos had connected with Seguine in the flat all night, and on fourth down Seguine beat Cummings to the ball and took off down the sideline to complete a 37-yard scoring play.

Seguine wound up with 103 yards on seven catches. ”They had been stopping the run all night, and you take what the defense gives you,“ said Hitchen. ”The flat pass was there.“

Seguine's kick with 7:01 left made it 27-10. Nipomo's last hope seemed gone when Morro Bay's Brian Budd, who caught four passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, recovered Mike Neal's onside kick.

But Scott fumbled at Nipomo's 22 after a 33-yard pass play, and the Titans recovered. Nipomo put together a 12-play, 78-yard scoring drive. Heredia took care of the final yard, for the last of his 106 yards on 15 carries.

”Chris Lemus turned his ankle, and then Bobby came in and did the job he can do,“ said Hitchen.

Heredia ran for 28 yards on the march, and Sperakos threw to Seguine for 38 more. Lucas Marsalek caught Sperakos' pass for Nipomo's last points with 2:01 left.

Then Nipomo's Nate Cajas recovered Neal's onside kick. ”He did a nice job to recover that,“ Hitchen said.

Cajas' recovery set up the Titans on Morro Bay's 44. Marsalek gained three yards, and then Nipomo's receivers dropped three consecutive passes. Marsalek's drop at the 27 was the last one.

”Those (drops) were by our best receivers,“ Hitchen said. ”You had the sophomore making money throws...“

Nipomo still had a chance when Seguine blocked Ryan Doyle's punt at the Morro Bay 16 on a 10-man rush with 1:02 left. But Sperakos threw an incompletion, fumbled a snap, had to scramble for no gain and then was sacked by Cummings and Eric Wooley for a 7-yard loss on fourth down.

Morro Bay led 20-3 at halftime and seemed to have things under control as the second half progressed early. In particular, Morro Bay's backs racked up big yardage behind its left side of guard Troy Dean, tackle Dylan Gross and tight end Jerome Long.

Then, ”We relaxed,“ Morro Bay coach John Andree said. ”We have 11 juniors, and we couldn't handle a big lead.

”Give Nipomo credit, though. Those kids played hard.“

That they did, but a defensive near miss cost Nipomo.

As the first half wound down, linebacker Joe Torres batted down a pass but could not hang onto it. Budd outdueled Seguine for the ball on the next play at the Nipomo 15 and sprinted in for a 34-yard scoring play.

Hitchen implied some of the scores in his team's game had been misleading.

El Diamante of Visalia defeated Nipomo 47-7 in the Titans' third game of the season, and Lompoc beat the Titans 52-0 the next. Hitchen said, ”El Diamante's a ...good team, and they caught us when we had a few injuries. Lompoc had an unbelievable second quarter.“

Next Friday night, Nipomo will try to push through for its first LPL win since entering the league in 2003. The Titans take on Santa Maria at 7:30 p.m. in Nipomo's Homecoming then.

Oct. 15, 2005