St. Francis Gains Spot in Playoffs With Win

Jim Bonds smiled, looked around and said one word.

“Beautiful.”

He certainly wasn’t talking about the chill-to-the-bone weather or the defensive strategies of the game that just unfolded in front of him.

Rather, the St. Francis coach was talking about his quarterback’s performance.

John Sciarra has thrown plenty of passes in his career at St. Francis, but he never played with the acumen and savvy he displayed in a 45-22 victory over Chaminade in a Mission League game Friday at St. Francis.

Sciarra completed 14 of 17 passes for a career-high 414 yards and three touchdowns as the Golden Knights (8-2, 2-1 in league play) locked up second place and a spot in next week’s playoffs.

Sciarra, who has committed to UCLA, was hot from the start, completing his first five passes, including an 81-yard touchdown play down the sideline to Brett Mitchell on the second play of the game.

Bonds, a former quarterback at UCLA, knew what he had viewed--near perfection.

“It’s about time we had an explosion like that,” he said. “We’ve been sputtering a little bit, but we thought we could find some holes in their defense. Johnny did a great job.”

The Golden Knights needed a confidence boost after getting stopped at the two-yard line in the waning seconds of a 13-7 loss to Notre Dame last week.

They discarded the loss rather quickly and rebounded with a strong week at practice.

It showed against Chaminade.

Sciarra completed pass plays of 81, 60, 57 and 71 yards and hooked up with Mitchell seven times for 244 yards and two touchdowns.

“Every route by a wide receiver was perfect,” said Sciarra, who surpassed 300 yards in a game for the first time this season.

“A lot of the balls weren’t perfect, but they made great catches.”

Chaminade came into the game short-handed, with three starters out with injuries, including two among the front seven on defense and one on the offensive line.

The Eagles (6-4, 1-2) moved the ball through the air with some efficiency, but were plagued by six ill-timed drops in the first half and a ground game that netted 30 yards heading into the fourth quarter.

On the good side, Erik Vose completed 19 of 35 passes for a career-high 366 yards and two touchdowns, and Bryan Borreson kicked a school-record 55-yard field goal in the second quarter.

Chaminade finished third in the league and did not earn a berth in the playoffs.

The Eagles must wait and see if they earn a wild card, a likely possibility.

“We talked to [the players] on Tuesday and told them we had to win,” Coach Bill Culpepper said. “We had a hard time catching that football and it affected the outcome of the game.

“We’ll kind of have to wait and see what happens.”

Josh Jones had eight catches for 83 yards for Chaminade.