Servite Rallies for Victory, But Tossed for Loss in Coin Flip

If Servite had any hopes of reaching the playoffs, it needed to score a touchdown on its final possession Friday night. If it didn’t, the Friars would go winless in league play for the first time in school history and miss the playoffs.

Under that pressure, against a Santa Margarita team that needed a victory to ensure itself an automatic qualifying berth, Servite did what it expected.

It scored. It won.

Friars quarterback Adam Ernst scored with 10 seconds remaining to lift Servite to a 31-27 victory over Santa Margarita, forcing a coin flip between the schools to determine who would go into the playoffs with an automatic berth.

There, Servite wasn’t so lucky.

So Servite (6-4, 1-2) will have to hope for one of three wild-card berths when the Southern Section Division I playoff pairings are released on Sunday. Santa Margarita (6-4, 1-2) knows it’s in, by the shortest tail feather.

On a night when Hartigan, the Eagles’ coach, switched Florida State-bound quarterback Chris Rix to receiver and replaced him with junior Matt Dlugolecki, Santa Margarita took a 27-23 lead with 2 minutes 56 seconds remaining on Jimmy Herzog’s two-yard run. It was the game’s eighth lead change, but it wasn’t the last.

Two penalties moved Servite back to its 25 when it made its final march, and Ernst completed three of five passes for 42 yards and ran three times for 28 on the final drive.

He scored from 10 yards.

“We knew we were going to score,” said left tackle Joe McGuire, who has committed to USC. “We always put it in in the last minute.”

Ernst also ran in for a two-point conversion for the final margin.

“My hat’s off to them,” Hartigan said. “That was a hell of a drive, a hell of a football game.”

Ernst completed only five of 11 passes for 66 yards, but ran 12 times for 60. Lamar Mason carried 16 times for 143 yards and a 51-yard score on the opening series, and Chad Bystedt (15 carries, 79 yards) scored from two yards and Justin Dominek (eight for 30) scored from three.

Rix was spectacular once out of the quarterback position. He had only three touchdowns with eight interceptions this season, but his athleticism was noticeable from the outset, when he caught Dlugolecki’s 69-yard scoring strike in stride on Santa Margarita’s first play.

Rix caught five passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns, including one for 40 yards on a quick screen. He also lined up in the backfield and rushed three times for 39 yards and an eight-yard score.

Dlugolecki completed nine of 18 passes for 216 yards and only one interception, by Mike Carolan, on the game’s last play.

“Our mindset was that if they were going to score 50, we were going to score 51,” Ernst said.