Defense Lifts Lancers to Final

Steven Pinales busted off a 35-yard touchdown run in the third quarter put the Lancers up for good.

By Tim Peterson

(Whittier) – The defense stood tall and the offense did just enough to lead La Serna to a 14-7 win over San Jacinto Friday night in the CIF Division 6 semi finals.

The outcome wasn’t decided until Milo Lopez intercepted San Jacinto quarterback Kajiya Holloway with less than two minutes left in the game. The Lancers picked up a first down and then it was victory formation.

The defense did its job all night holding San Jacinto to just one score. The Lancers forced San Jacinto into two turnovers. Atallah Shalash picked off Holloway early in the second half.

San Jacinto looked like it would take the early lead as the Tigers marched all the way down to the La Serna five yard line on their first possession. But the Lancer D exerted itself right away with a sack and a fourth down stop to hold them at bay.

La Serna then pieced together a 7-play, 89-yard drive to go up 7-0, Chandler McCaffer scored on a one-yard burst to cap the march. He also busted off a 25-yard run to set up the touchdown.

San Jacinto, after a couple of punts, got even late in the second quarter. Holloway hit Kameron Rocha over the middle on 12-yard touchdown strike with 24 seconds left in the half to tie it. This finished a 9-play, 53-yard drive.

La Serna scored what proved to be the game winning touchdown late in the third quarter. Steven Pinales found a seam in the line, broke though and outran the Tiger secondary for a 35-yard touchdown jaunt with 3:24 left in the third. The touchdown was set up by a 33-yard pass play from Andrew Henriquez to Jake George.

In the fourth quarter La Serna stopped San Jacinto on fourth down on the Lancer 43 and on the next possession Lopez’ pick sealed the victory.

“We were expecting an old fashioned tough hard hitting battle and that’s what we got,” said La Serna head coach Andy George. “We needed to do a good job of running the ball and tonight we were able to do that.”

For La Serna McCaffer had 58 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries while Pinales had 54 yards on 6 carries and the TD dash.

Henriquez threw for 133 yards on nine completions.

Juan Denny rushed for 111 yards for the Tigers while Holloway ran for 58 and threw for 87 but was hurt by the two picks

San Jacinto ended its season at 10-3 while La Serna, now 13-0 moves on to the Division 6 Finals

4 Comments to "Defense Lifts Lancers to Final"

  1. Anonymous's Gravatar Anonymous
    November 24, 2019 - 2:58 pm | Permalink

    WOW! REALLY!! I GUY…MUST BE YOUR KID. STOP LIVING THROUGH YOU SON

  2. Klaus's Gravatar Klaus
    November 23, 2019 - 1:43 am | Permalink

    …just win!

  3. Big LS Fan's Gravatar Big LS Fan
    November 23, 2019 - 1:14 am | Permalink

    Your article completely missed the catch of the year by George #7 to set up the game winning TD in the 3rd quarter.
    From T. Peterson: Right I wasn’t done editing the story. There’s a lot going on tonight. But it’s there.

  4. Maverick's Gravatar Maverick
    November 23, 2019 - 12:55 am | Permalink

    To the LS haters…
    You guys have been saying all year we haven’t been tested, well let me tell you this game was a test and our Defense came up huge…
    Offense wins game and Defense wins championships. See you guys next week in the finals. WE ARE LS!

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