Cartwright Directs Carlsbad’s Upset Win

Shane Cartwright, a 5-foot-7 sprite of a quarterback, could not recall how many times he has played that position for Carlsbad.

Four times? Five? No idea.

All he knew was, he had the ball, he was the director, and there was no way he was going to allow his Lancers to lose to a team from some league in East County.

By the end of Carlsbad’s 28-21 upset over host El Capitan in a San Diego Section 2-A quarterfinal playoff game, he had converted legions of believers.

Cartwright, the third Lancer quarterback this season, jump-started Carlsbad with a 59-yard touchdown sprint on its first possession of the game, then added two more touchdown runs and a touchdown pass to highlight a night to remember.

After Carlsbad had snuffed out El Capitan’s final hopes by forcing an incomplete desperation pass from the Lancer 25, Cartwright was lost somewhere in a pile of jubilant Carlsbad players.

And then it was finished. Carlsbad (6-6) will play the winner of tonight’s El Camino-Kearny game. El Capitan (10-2), champion of the Grossmont 2-A League, was left to figure out what happened.

“I feel we had a much harder schedule than any team around here,” Cartwright said. “I feel they only played three hard teams.”

Cartwright, who finished with 105 yards rushing on 14 carries and also completed four of seven passes for 68 yards and a touchdown, went on to say that he knew Carlsbad would win.

Said Carlsbad Coach Rick Brown: “I’ll tell you what, I didn’t know that. We wanted to and hoped we could.”

Chalk up another one for the Avocado League. Last week, the league that is quickly gaining a reputation as the toughest in San Diego went 5-0 in the playoffs.

Cartwright’s 59-yard run with 7:15 to play in the first quarter put Carlsbad ahead and, after El Capitan’s James Hopkins went 22 yards up the middle for a touchdown two minutes later, it was 7-7.

Then, after a nearly scoreless second quarter, Carlsbad struck twice. Cartwright scored on a three-yard run with 43 seconds to play before halftime, giving Carlsbad a 14-7 lead and then, on the next play from scrimmage, Carlsbad lineman Garth Stidolph intercepted a Bob Vickery shovel pass.

Two plays later, Cartwright passed 16 yards to Geoff Bonta, and it was 21-7 at halftime.

Carlsbad made it 28-7 with 9:19 left in the third quarter when Cartwright scored from the nine.

But the Vaqueros scored on an eight-yard Greg Ryan run with 31 seconds left in the third quarter and then Vickery went 11 yards on a keeper to narrow the margin to a touchdown, 28-21, with 9:44 left.

El Capitan got the ball back at its 19 with 1:26 to play for one final attempt. Vickery nearly guided a heroic comeback but, Bonta broke up a 10-yard pass to Chad Perry at the goal line and, two plays later, Carlsbad was preparing for the long, happy bus ride home.

“We’re so excited,” Brown said. “This is a great victory for Carlsbad High School.”

Said Vickery: “They just played some great defense.”

And the quarterback wasn’t bad, either.