THE BIG GAME : Carlsbad Victory Is ‘Neat’

Imagine piling up all of 19 first-half yards and heading into the locker room with a one-point lead.

Or imagine outgaining your opponent by 111 yards, running 35 plays to your opponent’s seven, and going into the locker room down by one.

Then imagine going back out for the second half with any kind hopes of winning the thing.

Yep, St. Augustine’s hopes were flat going into the second half of its opening-round playoff game against Carlsbad, and so, too, was its offense.

There was a reciprocal to St. Augustine’s second-half woes--Carlsbad’s offense. The Lancers (8-2-1) rolled for 157 yards and two touchdowns in the final two quarters en route to a 21-6 victory.

Carlsbad Coach Rick Brown couldn’t contain his excitement, and he didn’t try to.

“You know what the neat thing is about this team?” he asked reporters afterward. “This is a senior team. When they were young, somebody lied to them and told them they couldn’t win. And they believed him. In these guys’ first year (as a freshman team) they went 0-9-1.

“You know what the neat thing is?” Brown repeated. “The neat thing is where they are now. These guys can win.

“You know what the neat thing is?” Brown repeated his refrain. “These guys are a team .”

And it exploited a Saints team that admittedly came out with little emotion in the second half.

When asked if exiting the field at the half after picking through Carlsbad’s defense for 130 yards down by one ruined his team’s chances, St. Augustine Coach Marty Martin shook his head affirmatively.

“I think it did,” he said. “We needed to get the ball into the end zone in the first half, and we didn’t.”

That’s not completely true. St. Augustine scored the game’s first touchdown when Michael Greer capped a 14-play, 68-yard drive on a trap play up the middle that went for five yards and a touchdown. It was the first play of the second quarter.

But it wasn’t the biggest play of the second quarter. That came with five minutes remaining when Saints quarterback Aaron Buckner faded back in the pocket on a third-and-five from the Carlsbad 17.

He didn’t find any receivers, but two Carlsbad linebackers found him. Corey Clay and Robbie Ingham hit Buckner and forced a fumble.

The ball spurted behind the quarterback. Ingham spotted it, ran at it, scooped it up and went 65 yards for the touchdown.

“I knew I didn’t have the speed,” Ingham said. “So I was running for my life. Once I hit the end zone I just collapsed. I was ready to sit down for a couple minutes.”

Then came the second half, when St. Augustine collapsed.

Still, the Saints held tight throughout the third quarter as neither team could move the football past the 50.

What turned the tide was a 24-yard carry on an option play by halfback Charlie Grant on a first and 10 from the St. Augustine 41. At the end of the play, the Saints were called for a personal foul, which tacked an extra 15 yards onto Grant’s carry.

That put the ball at the 20 and two plays later Grant carried it in from the eight.

Down 14-6 with six minutes left, St. Augustine needed to connect on some passes. One problem. Carlsbad knew that and adjusted its defense accordingly.

On third and 10 from his own 20, St. Augustine’s Buckner was sacked by Carlsbad’s Ken Gayson and Phil Cotton all the way back to the 8.

St. Augustine had to punt from its own end zone. Carlsbad took over 30 yards away from the goal line.

The final score came on a third and six from the 15 when Will Bartsch threw a halfback option pass to a wide-open Calvin Coleman.

“We were expecting to run on them all week,” Grant said.