DIVISION 2A FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : Santana Overpowers the Saints

Santana quarterback Doug Schultz searched his brain. He reeled off a few names. Was he forgetting anyone?

Schultz spread around the credit for the Sultans’ 17-10 first-round victory over St. Augustine in the 2-A San Diego Section football playoffs Friday night at San Diego High.

Santana’s winning touchdown came with 8:13 left in the fourth quarter. Fullback Arnold Santoyo rushed the final seven plays of the drive, including his scoring dash from one-yard out and break the 10-10 tie. The highlight of the drive came when Schultz ran for a 12-yard gain on fourth and six from the Saints’ 31 to kept the 15-play drive alive.

It was only of several fourth down plays that the Sultans converted. But why not? With that offensive line, St. Augustine was hard-pressed to stop them.

“We’re pretty happy with our running game,” Schultz said. “We wanted to come out and establish that right away. Once we’ve done that, we’re hard to stop.”

As evidenced by Santana’s rushing numbers. Fullback Willie Fox, who put the Sultans up 10-0 with a one-yard touchdown in the second quarter, carried 14 times for 93 yards. Fox sat out the second half with a twisted ankle.

Conversely, Santoyo’s 89 yards on 20 carries came all in the second half. On the ground, Santana (7-4) gained 265 yards to the Saints’ 119.

To the victor go the spoils, and Schultz spoiled his offensive line with a heap of credit.

“All the credit goes to the line. They’ve been doing this all year,” he said.

Jason Braun, Jason Diveley, Leon Bender, Dan DelaCruz, Dan Prowse. All parties accounted for.

Yet members of the offensive line felt they have been overlooked by other higher profile programs in East Country.

“We had something to prove,” said left guard Braun. “We haven’t gotten the respect we think we deserve. We knew we have to be able to score against these guys.”

The Saints (9-2), on the other hand, weren’t used to being held to 10 points. Not that this was a coincidence. Going into this game, Santana had recorded five shutouts--four consecutive to begin the season--and had shutout highly regarded El Capitan for 3 1/2 quarters the week earlier.

But that’s where the play of the City Harbor League can sometimes come back to haunt a team.

“There are some good teams,” said quarterback Aaron Buckner (11-for-21, 111 yards). “But the Harbor League doesn’t get us ready for this. We’re used to scoring 51 points a game, and then we come in and only get 10.”

But what a 10 it was. St. Augustine’s Josh Guidi kicked a 33-yard field goal that would have probably made it another 10 yards to pull Saints to 10-3.

Saints’ lone touchdown, which tied the game with 4:16 left in the third quarter, came on a 92-yard run by Esley Baker. Baker ran down the left sideline, spun out of a tackle near the 50 and was clear the rest of the way.

“The momentum was on their side,” said Schultz, who two plays into Santana’s next possession shifted the momentum back on to his side by completing his first pass of the night, an unlikely 31-yarder to Dan Clauss.