Sometimes the engine runs a bit rough when you start it up on a cold night.

But once it gets warmed up, it hums along nicely and easily gets you where you want to go.

That’s what happened to the St. Joseph Knights in Friday night’s opening round game of the CIF Southern Section Toyota High School Football Championships.

On a chilly night in Orcutt, a rough start turned into a smooth finish and a 42-12 victory over Montebello’s Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary High School in the Northwest Division playoffs.

The Knights came in as the undefeated Los Padres League champions going 7-0 in league play and 9-1 overall.

The Cantwell Cardinals were the tri-champs of the Camino Real League with a 6-4 record overall and a 3-1 record in the league (along with Verbum Dei and Bishop Montgomery).

St. Joseph was the heavy favorite.

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The underdog Cardinals started mostly sophomores, lost their starting quarterback — junior Cesar Hernandez — to injury last week, then lost two more key players during Friday night’s game.

“Cesar got hurt last week against Verbum Dei,” said Cantwell head coach Pete Smolin. “He was playing on defense when he was hurt. He helped us win the game, win the league championship and get into the playoffs but he was lost for the season. Then we lost wide receiver Jeffrey Taylor in the second quarter and fullback Zeke Flores in the third. But the injuries are no excuse. It was a tough game. We played a very tough team tonight. We knew we were in for a fight. Our kids gave it their best shot.”

But this underdog had plenty of bite.

The Cardinals’ Chris Perez intercepted St. Joseph quarterback Gavin Kelly’s first pass.

“An ugly win is still a win,” said St. Joseph head coach Mike Hartman. “Our defense played a great game, they played really well the whole game and that gave our offense time to get into gear. Our pass rush was outstanding Buhring, John Sua and Jimmy Aldridge. They got us into the final eight. There are eight teams left and we are one of them — so that’s a good thing.”

The Knights’ defense refused to move and, even though the Cards had excellent field position at the Knights’ 28, forced Cantwell to turn the ball over on downs at the 22.

This time, St. Joseph stuck to its ground game until the players warmed up.

Kelly, tailback Ryan Anglin and fullback John Sua carried the load for six straight running plays.

Then Kelly aired it out — first for seven yards to Anglin and then firing a strike right down the middle of the field for a 36 yard touchdown to Stephen Buhring. Anthony Gallegos tacked on the first of his six extra points and the Knights were up 7-0 midway through the first quarter.

“Buhring played a great game on both sides of the ball,” said Hartman. “Ryan Anglin had a quiet 120 yards — if you can call 120-yards rushing quiet — and two touchdowns.”

The Cardinals worked hard at coming right back but their engine sputtered and chugged along.

Cantwell put together a 12-play drive — a drive that featured three fumbles (all recovered by Cantwell), a sack, a 35-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Christian Espinoza (Espinoza and St., Joe’s K.J. Cusack both went up for the ball, both caught the ball with Espinoza wrestling the ball away for the completion) and ended with an interception at the St. Joseph four yard line.

That’s the kind of night it was for the Cardinals.

But the Knights couldn’t put this scrappy team away early.

Cantwell came right back and intercepted Kelly near midfield.

Warming up nicely, the Cardinals put together a nine-play, 45-yard scoring drive with Espinoza hitting Zeke Flores with a seven-yard touchdown pass to cut the St. Joseph lead to 7-6. The two-point conversion attempt failed but the Cardinals were hanging tough midway through the second quarter.

Now the Knights kicked it into high gear.

Anglin and Kelly alternated running plays. Kelly was also 2-for-2 passing.

It took St. Joseph 2:24 to move 79 yards on seven plays — capped off with Anglin’s seven-yard run — to put St. Joseph up 14-6.

St. Joseph’s John Sua sacked Espinoza on the next play. Espinoza fumbled and St., Joseph recovered at the Cantwell 29.

On the next play, Kelly hit Jason Buchanan on a crossing pattern that covered all 29 yards and St. Joseph had padded it’s lead to 21-6 heading into the half.

The third quarter was fairly quiet, until the very end.

After a 15-yard punt return by K.J. Cusack set the Knights up at their own 48 yard line.

An end-around to Cusack pick up 30 quick yards.

Kelly then handed the ball off to Anglin on a slant play that was good for eight more.

Kelly then ran the same play — with one little difference — he didn’t give the ball to Anglin.

With the defense collapsing on Anglin, Kelly stepped to his left and trotted, almost in slow motion, untouched into the end zone for a 10-yard score and a 28-6 lead as the third quarter was winding down.

“Gavin worked some more of his magic,” said Hartman. “On that play, the misdirection drew the defense to Ryan. They didn’t even see Gavin had the football.”

As the fourth quarter began, Cusack intercepted another Cardinals pass on the far sideline, ran back about 10 yards to get away from two Cantwell players, circled up to the near sideline, got hit, broke several tackles, stayed in-bounds and finally ended up in the end zone with a 60-yard touchdown just :09-seconds into the fourth quarter.

“We had four interceptions, K.J. had two and returned one for a TD,” said Hartman. “And he didn’t step out of bounds.”

Cusack picked off another pass on the Cardinals’ next possession and, three plays later, Anglin raced into the end zone from the 14 to put the game out of reach.

“I can see this team going all the way to the finals,” said Smolin. “St. Joseph is a great team and this was a great place to play. St. Joseph was an excellent host. We wish them all the best the rest of the way.

With the win the Knights are off to El Segundo, the No. 2 seed out of the Pioneer League. El Segundo defeated Santa Clara 42-0 on the road, earning the Eagles a home game in the second round.

November 22, 2008