It “prevents” nothing

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Mike Jacot of Santa Margarita is always going to be one of my favorite coaches. He sealed that distinction when his team beat Mission Viejo last year in the playoffs by going for a two-point conversion in the game’s final seconds.

He confirmed it when he hung in there Friday night and answered questions about his team’s soft defense in the closing minutes of a 15-14 loss to St. Bonaventure, a game in which A) both teams squeezed four touchdowns into the fourth quarter, B) Santa Margarita blew a 14-0 lead with less than four minutes remaining, and C) the better team that night didn’t necessarily win. Not once did Jacot do a slow burn like you get sometimes when you ask those occasionally uncomfortably direct questions.

‘We’re young and inexperienced in the secondary, and it showed,’ said Jacot, The Times’ coach of the year last year. ‘Not very many people gave us a chance, Darrell Scott was going to run for 200 yards. We played a little too soft, but our game plan was they were going to have to pass to beat us.’

Tony Macarena of St. Bonaventure completed 14 of 22 passes for 185 yards -- but 132 came on the final two drives of the game, when he completed seven of eight passes.

‘I was pretty wide open,’ said Blayne Lewis, the St. Bonny receiver who caught the 39-yard touchdown pass with 37 seconds left in the game. ‘Me and Tony hooked up just like we do in practice.’

You’ve got to make those teams earn those yards at the end of the game. If they beat you, you’ll know they beat you straight up. Games like this will always leave you wondering what might have happened if...

But I’m pretty sure I know the answer.

- Martin Henderson