St. Paul Stymied by Fargas

In the end, Notre Dame High had just enough Justin.

Knight tailback Justin Fargas carried 17 times for 142 yards, including several crucial fourth-quarter runs, as his team withstood a late St. Paul rally to win, 16-14, in a nonleague game on Friday night at Notre Dame.

This was a game that Notre Dame (4-1) won by only a few yards, as St. Paul’s Dan Bustamante’s 61-yard field-goal attempt fell tantalizingly short with 19 seconds left.

“Oh my God,” Notre Dame Coach Kevin Rooney said. “I thought it was good.”

Said Fargas: “We just had faith.”

It looked like the Knights didn’t have a prayer as St. Paul (4-1) came storming back from a 13-0 deficit in the fourth quarter.

Fullback Saul Frausto dove from the two-yard line to close the score to 13-7 with 11 minutes to go. After a 25-yard field goal by Notre Dame’s Juan Placencia, St. Paul scored again as Chris Willis passed 33 yards to a leaping Marcel Allmond.

With five minutes left, it appeared the Swordsmen were poised for victory.

These two teams might have been playing in the same conference this season if Notre Dame hadn’t successfully challenged a football realignment plan that would have placed the team in the Division I Del Rey League.

So far this year, the Knights already have beaten such Del Rey bottom-feeders as Crespi and Alemany. But it was the league’s bigger fish, the Loyolas and Bishop Amats that truly frightened the Knights.

St. Paul entered the game looking pretty scary, too. The Swordsmen had outscored four opponents, 138-19.

Holding the ball for all but eight plays in the first quarter, St. Paul put together two long drives. The first threat ultimately succumbed to penalties. The second ended when running back Manuel Murillo fumbled 11 yards short of the goal line.

Notre Dame took that gift and turned it into an 89-yard drive. Fargas began to find holes in the defense. Quarterback Jorge Piedra, who completed 11 of 18 passes for 94 yards, eluded a rusher and threw 24 yards to a wide-open Joe Aragno for the game’s first score.

On the first possession of the second half, the Knights widened their lead with a bit of trickery as junior center Ryan Karapetian rambled 39 yards on a fumblerooski.

That set the stage for St. Paul’s late heroics. But with Fargas eating up the clock on late runs, the Swordsmen simply ran out of time.

After the game, Bustamante stared at the goal posts teary-eyed.

“I just didn’t get all of it,” the kicker said.