Venture Into Unknown Comes to Abrupt End as Calabasas Falls, 38-6

ATASCADERO — The 1986 Calabasas High football team dared go where no Coyote football team had gone before--to the second round of the Southern Section playoffs, and beyond.

But Calabasas’ postseason odyssey ended Friday night with a far trek to the outer reaches of San Luis Obispo County, where the Coyotes fizzled in the drizzle, losing 38-6 to Atascadero in the semifinals of the Desert-Mountain Conference playoffs.

“That’s the best team we’ve played all year,” Calabasas Coach Larry Edwards said. “They blocked us, tackled us--they did everything fundamentally better than we did. They just flat outplayed us. No excuses.”

The Frontier League champion, finished 8-4-1, advancing further in the playoffs than any previous Calabasas football team.

Atascadero (10-2-1) advances to next week’s final against St. Joseph, a winner over Harvard Friday in the other Desert-Mountain semifinal.

This time, there was no thrilling comeback by the Coyotes, who came from 12 points down in the second half last week to upset top-seeded Bloomington, 26-25. This week, it was all Calabasas could do to get on the scoreboard.

Atascadero had that trick mastered in the first half, when the Coyotes left the driving to the Greyhounds.

The ‘Hounds, as they are known in these parts, recovered Scott Pensis’ fumble at the Calabasas 35 on the game’s first play from scrimmage. They scored six plays later on tailback Mike Milbury’s five-yard run.

Atascadero scored again with a minute left in the first quarter, Milbury taking a pitch from quarterback Darin Brebes and racing in from 17 yards out. Milbury dragged Coyote defender Spencer Siegel the final six yards.

The Greyhounds, who missed an earlier extra point, went for two, Brebes hitting Nick Kaiser with a pass in the back of the end zone for a 14-0 lead.

Atascadero upped its advantage to 21-0 early in the second quarter when Milbury again took a pitch and broke to the outside. He appeared to be stopped for a short gain, but broke out of the grasp of Siegel and Marty Garron en route to a 70-yard touchdown.

Milbury, who rushed for 125 yards in the first half, finished with 165 yards on 11 carries.

“He was a lot faster than we thought he was,” Edwards said. “He turned it on. We couldn’t control him to the outside.”

The Greyhounds tacked another three points on the scoreboard with 4:45 left in the half, Travis Izatt connecting on a 22-yard field goal. They weren’t done yet, though.

Ed Mitchell returned a Calabasas punt 39 yards to the Coyote 30, and it took Atascadero just five plays to put the ball in the end zone. This time it was fullback John Martin going over from the three.

Izatt’s PAT put the Hounds up, 31-0, at halftime.