Cathedral holds on to defeat St. Francis after a wild ending in a battle of undefeated teams

The players had retreated to the locker room. The fans had left the stadium. L.A. Cathedral Coach Kevin Pearson was standing alone on the Cathedral football field when an assistant interrupted an interview to tell him, “Stress. Great game. Love you.”

Yes, a 24-17 win over La Cañada St. Francis on Friday night in a battle of unbeaten teams belongs in the Phantoms’ “great win” category, and there was certainly stress during a wild ending to the Angelus League game.

Cathedral (9-0, 4-0) forced an incompletion on fourth down with 1:13 left and took over possession thinking all it had to do was run out the clock. After St. Francis used its final two timeouts, the Phantoms had fourth down with 42 seconds left. The clock was running when suddenly a delay-of-game penalty was called with 27 seconds on the clock. You’re supposed to get 25 seconds to run off a play, so Pearson wasn’t happy.

Soon the Phantoms were given a five-yard penalty for delay of game, plus a 15-yard unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty for someone yelling at the officials. Then the officials put 30 seconds on the clock. It was a fiasco in the making. But on the ensuing punt from near the end zone, St. Francis fumbled the ball and Cathedral got the victory. Pearson had to be restrained by coaches and even players as the Phantoms tried to run out the clock for a second time.

The Phantoms once again showed that using two quarterbacks isn’t such a bad idea. Andrew Tovar came through in the third quarter. He had a one-yard touchdown run and a 32-yard pass completion to Arex Flemings on fourth down. Combined with a Colin Payne two-yard touchdown run, Cathedral opened a 17-3 lead.

But Michael Bonds of St. Francis rallied his team, throwing touchdown passes of three and 32 yards to Gabriel Mathews to tie the score, 17-17.

St. Francis got a blocked field goal with 6:01 left from Bobby Gazmarian, but then Jeffrey Manning came up with an interception, and Cathedral had the ball on the Golden Knights’ 10. Jamire Calvin caught a tiebreaking five-yard touchdown pass from freshman Bryce Young, who also hurt the Golden Knights with his scrambling ability.

“It is what it is,” Person said of his two-quarterback rotation. “One plays in the first and third quarters, the other in the second and fourth. It’s like a seamless flow.”

St. Francis dropped to 8-1 overall and 3-1 in league. The Golden Knights lost three fumbles.

The first half was memorable for the amount of kicking and punting going on for a football game. It only figured that it was soccer players doing the scoring in a 3-3 deadlock. Dallas Hanula of St. Francis had a 25-yard field goal. Jose Nuñez of Cathedral had a 42-yard field goal.

Flemings was the star offensive player for Cathedral, catching nine passes for 104 yards.