Tim Savey is St. Joseph High/s homecoming hero.

Savey had a career night while leading the Knights to a convincing 18-6 victory over the Morro Bay Pirates on a rain-soaked Al Maguire Field Friday night.

Savey rushed for 246 yards and scored all three St. Joe touchdowns in a crucial Los Padres League football match.

The victory put the Knights squarely in position for second place in the LPL with a good shot for a CIF playoff berth.

"If we win, we/re in," said St. Joseph coach Barney Eames. "This is a huge win for this team. We/re right where we want to be."

The victory evens the Knights/ LPL record at 2-2 (2-6 overall), tying them with Morro Bay (2-2, 4-5) and Santa Ynez (2-2, 3-6) for second place in the league.

While Savey piled up the yards, it wasn/t just the Tim Savey show.

Behind quarterback Matt Crist, Eames alternated his running backs on every play. I-back Savey and fullback Ross Gracia would handle one play, then I-back Nicholas San Juan and fullback Brandon Merlo would handle the next.

Eames alternated those tandems for most of the first half, until San Juan went down with an ankle injury shortly before the half. Running back Sean Wolfe came in to replace San Juan in the second half, keeping Eames/ rotation going the whole game.

"We did it so that we would always have fresh legs in the game," Eames said. "We knew it was going to be a rainy, wet field and we just wanted to pound the ball at the Morro Bay defense."

The kicking game suffered for both teams in the rain. Morro Bay had a weak opening kickoff that resembled an unintentional on-sides kick. San Juan fielded fell on it at the Morro Bay 48 yard line.

Then it was San Juan and Savey alternating carries as the Knights pounded the ball straight ahead for a ten-play, 48-yard drive ending with Savey/s first touchdown, from 16 yards out with 6:46 left in the first quarter.

Our ground game was outstanding," said Eames. "I was really proud of our offensive line of Matt Ruiz, Brian Kinson, Shane Lim, Matt Matasci and Jake Bradfield and with our fullbacks Merlo and Gracia."

Michael Priestman slipped and fell as he tried the extra point. It was the only time either time tried to kick an extra point all night on the muddy, soggy field.

St. Joseph would use the same alternating pattern all night, leading to a 52-yard Savey touchdown run with 1:47 left in the second quarter and an 80-yard Savey score, aided by an excellent Luis Escobar block at the Morro Bay 5 yard line, with 2:44 left in the third.

Meanwhile, on defense, the Knights keyed on Morro Bay/s star running back Joe Garcia.

Garcia came into the game as the Central Coast/s third leading rusher, with 1,217 yards through the Pirates/ first eight games. The Knights held Garcia to 72 yards on 29 carries. Garcia also caught one pass for 48 yards.

"We put eight guys on the line of scrimmage. We planned to stop Garcia, attack on defense and shut them down. Our guys did it perfectly," said Eames.

Each time Morro Bay came close to the goal line, the St. Joseph defense came up big, stuffing Garcia at the goal line in the fourth quarter as Morro Bay valiantly tried to come back.

The weather was definitely a factor. The game began in a heavy rain that didn/t let up until halftime. Then a steady, annoying mist continued until the weather worsened again just before the end of the game.

It forced the school to move the homecoming queen ceremony from halftime at the 50-yard line to before the game in the school gym.

Ashley Coehlo, a star on the St. Joseph volleyball and track teams, was crowned homecoming queen on her 18th birthday. The homecoming king will be crowned during Saturday night/s homecoming dance.

St. Joseph had its first punt attempt blocked and its second partially blocked as punter Brandon Merlo slipped, slid and sloshed trying to find solid footing.

Morro Bay fumbled the ball 13 times, losing four. Pirates coach John Andree used three quarterbacks, Danny Woodman, Cody Faust and Josh Neider. "I was just trying to find one that could hold onto the ball," Andree said. "Playing in the rain just took a little too much out of us. We just didn/t play well tonight."

Second place and CIF playoff spots are on the line next week when St. Joseph hosts the Santa Maria Saints. Morro Bay plays Santa Ynez next week. St. Joseph holds the tie-breaking edge over both those schools so a win over the Saints would wrap up second place and a CIF berth for the Knights.

November 9, 2002