Fitzgerald’s Field Goal Lifts Agoura : Prep football: Chargers score winning points with 56 seconds left in opening half.
Agoura High beat Santa Clara, 3-0, Saturday after both teams stumbled through two sloppy hours in a nonleague game that might only go to show that the Chargers are not quite as bad as the Saints at this point in the season.
After all, Agoura’s 146 total yards are only impressive compared to Santa Clara’s 86. And the teams combined for 177 penalty yards and eight turnovers.
Thus, neither coach was impressed with his team’s performance.
“We have more kinks than anything else,” Santa Clara Coach Larry Lawrence said. “If we had gone out and played hard and were beaten by a better team, I could accept the loss, but . . .”
Agoura wasn’t much better than the Saints, who have been hurt by inexperience and injuries. The Charger offense sputtered and eventually escaped on Pat Fitzgerald’s 30-yard field goal with 56 seconds left in the first half.
“Neither team was functioning on all cylinders,” Agoura Coach Frank Greminger said. “We weren’t ready offensively. We played decent defense, and I’m not even sure about that.”
The series of plays that perhaps best described the contest occurred early in the second half.
Agoura was unable to field the second-half kickoff and Santa Clara recovered at Agoura’s 19-yard line. Santa Clara’s Lloyd Mix fumbled on the second play from scrimmage. Agoura recovered and on the next play, Matt Francisco (50 yards in 15 carries) fumbled it back to Santa Clara at the eight. The Saints couldn’t advance past the four, where they returned the ball to Agoura on downs.
Agoura also fumbled the ball away at its 49 with 11 minutes 10 seconds remaining. The Saints advanced to the 16 with 7:17 left but lost 17 yards in the next five plays, and Agoura again took over on downs.
A Santa Clara penalty on a punt prolonged Agoura’s drive and gave the Chargers a first down., When Agoura finally was forced to punt again, the Saints fumbled and Sina Sayahi recovered to preserve the victory.