Southern Section Football Playoffs

Chaminade 20, St. Joseph 13--St. Joseph has been to the playoffs 10 of the past 11 years and was the conference runner-up last season. But the Knights won’t be returning to the final this year.

Chaminade saw to that, holding on to defeat St. Joseph in a Desert-Mountain Conference semifinal game at Righetti High in Santa Maria.

Chaminade, which has won 11 consecutive games, will meet Woodbridge, a 40-0 winner over Atascadero, in next week’s final.

The Eagles (11-2), who have never been in a final before, had to hold off two late drives by the Knights and their highly touted quarterback, Mark Brunell, to pull out the victory.

Gary Haase sealed St. Joseph’s fate, intercepting a Brunell pass with four seconds left.

“People don’t believe we’re for real,” Chaminade Coach Rich Lawson said.

The Eagles led, 13-7, at intermission, but Roy Kilgore scored on a three-yard run in the third period to tie the score. Chaminade took the ensuing kick and marched 80 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, Tim Lavin scoring for the third time, this time on a five-yard run. Lavin rushed for 165 yards in 28 carries and scored all three Chaminade touchdowns. Lavin has 1,676 rushing yards to set a school single-season record, bettering the old mark of 1,611.

“Nobody really respects us so we just went out and said, ‘Let’s show them what we can do.’ And we did it,” Lavin said.