GARDENA - The game plan for The Pioneer Valley football game was to keep the high scoring Serra offense off the field. For most of the game, they did.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, the second-seeded Cavaliers had a little more in the gas tank at the end and held off the visitors from Santa Maria 24-14, in a first round match up of the CIF-Southern Section Northwest Division game in Gardena on Friday night.

“They were big,” said Pioneer Valley coach Greg Dickenson. “Defensively we played pretty darn well until that last drive.”

Serra led 17-7 at the end of the third quarter. The Cavaliers then went on a 12-play, 64-yard drive that lasted for over six minutes. Carl Winston scored from four yards out with 5:34 left on the clock.

In the drive, Winston, who was held in check for most of the game by the Panther defense, ran the ball eight times for 38 yards.

Winston came into the game after rushing for 1,673 yards in the ten-game regular season. The Panthers held him to 83 yards on 25 carries. At the half Winston had just 20 yards on seven runs.

“They are averaging about 40 points a game,” Dickenson explained. “Our game plan on the whole is we said ‘let's keep these guys off the field because they are explosive.”

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The game plan worked well in the first half. After a scoreless first quarter, the Panthers took a 7-0 lead after a long drive. Starting a drive with 3:57 remaining in the first, Pioneer Valley started at their own 31. They moved to the Serra 37 at the end of the quarter.

Sophomore Nick Rucobo came in at quarterback to begin the second. He took the Panthers down the field and scored on a 12 yard scamper at 8:38. Andres Montiel hit the extra point to give PV a 7-0 lead. The drive took 7:19 off the clock and took 13 plays.

Serra struck back quickly however. After Winston returned the kick off to the Cavalier 43, it took just five plays for Serra to score. Quarterback Ted Landers hit Malcolm Murray for a 40-yard touchdown pass.

Pioneer Valley took the next kick off with 5:39 remaining in the half and used the entire clock driving down to the Serra seven yard line.

With 23 seconds left, Rucobo over threw Diego DeMiranda in the corner of the end zone. As the clock was running out and Pioneer Valley having no more timeouts, Rucobo rolled to the right then had to run for his life and tried to run up the middle. After he was brought down, the Panthers did not have enough time to spike the ball to stop the clock.

Pioneer came up empty and went into the locker room tied at seven. It proved to be a turning point in the game.

“We called a time out and tried to throw a pass right at the end of the half,” Dickenson explained. “Specifically we said to run a sprint-out on purpose so he can sprint out and throw it out of bounds - then we take a sack.”

“Instead of going up potentially 10-7,” he continued, “we go in with no points. When we hit the locker room we hit it a little flat.”

Another big turning point came in the third quarter when Rucobo went down with a possible broken ankle.

The injury came on the drive immediately after Serra took the lead 14-7. After an eight yard run by Pioneer's Josiah Morales, the ball was stripped out of his hands. Serra's Robert Woods took the fumble from the 50 to the PV 23.

The Cavaliers scored on four plays, with Winston scoring from the two.

On the first play of the next drive, Rucobo dove into the center of the line and did not get up. He was carried off the field and was replaced by Peter Renteria, who had played the first quarter.

“Nick came in and gave a big spark and caught them off guard,” said Dickenson. “We were confident coming out in the second half - it was anybody's game.”

“You're playing the number two seed and I think we had them on the ropes,” he continued. “Then they strip us on a ball that should have been called down.”

After the Panthers were forced to punt, Serra drove down the field with a drive over five minutes and converted a 30-yard field goal, making the score 17-7.

“I'm real proud of the kids,” Dickenson said. “All year we kind of stumbled but had some bright spots. We worked real hard the last two weeks to get ready for this and I think it showed.”

“I'm a little disappointed we ran out of gas in the fourth quarter,” he continued. “The positive thing is we got a lot of underclassmen coming back next year that can do some damage. So we're excited about the future.”

November 17, 2007