Cougars Upset by Atascadero

Sean McGaughey scored the deciding touchdown from two yards on the final play of the first half as Atascadero upset Capistrano Valley, 14-12, in a nonleague football game Saturday night.

Atascadero (2-2) took control of the ball on its 20 with 1 minute 39 seconds left in the second quarter after Capistrano Valley’s Matt Donoho missed a field-goal attempt. McGaughey’s 14-yard run and a 41-yard pass from Ryan Canfield to Justin Etteldorft helped move the Greyhounds to the Capistrano Valley 24 with 27 seconds left. Canfield ended a streak of 10 completions by throwing the ball out of bounds to stop the clock.

Canfield surprised the Cougars, ranked second in Orange County, with a 20-yard run to give the Greyhounds the ball on the four with six seconds left. Capistrano Valley was called for pass interference on the next play, which moved the ball to the two with two seconds left.

“We came here to win,” said Atascadero Coach Larry Welsh, explaining why his team decided to go for the touchdown instead of a game-tying field goal.

McGaughey slipped through for the go-ahead touchdown.

Capistrano Valley (3-1) took 3-0 lead with 3:06 left in the first quarter on Donoho’s 33-yard field goal.

The Cougars increased their lead to 10-0 when Austin Moherman hit Malaefou MacKenzie with a 78-yard pass and Donoho connected on the conversion from 35 yards out after Capistrano Valley was penalized for taunting.

Atascadero put together a 73-yard scoring drive with Canfield, who connected on four passes in the drive, scoring from the one.

Capistrano Valley had a chance to regain the lead with 5:56 left in the contest but was stopped on a fourth-and-one situation from the seven when a Moherman-to-MacKenzie pass play lost five yards.

The Cougars tackled punter Kevin Roy in the end zone with four seconds left for a safety, which completed the scoring.

Moherman completed 14 of 25 passes for 265 yards in the losing effort, and Canfield hit 12 of 15 for 172 for the Greyhounds.