St. Vincent climbed off the deck in the closing minutes to come away with an exciting 27-21 playoff win over Cloverdale on Saturday afternoon to advance to the second round of the North Coast Section Division V playoffs.
The host Mustangs trailed 21-7 with time at a premium late in the third quarter, but rallied with three unanswered touchdowns to avenge an earlier regular-season loss to the Eagles. This time around, it was the running of senior George Sammon and a much-improved defense in pressure conditions that made the difference.
Sammon galloped for 241 yards and three touchdowns to pace the victory and helped his team stay alive for another round in the NCS playoffs against Salesian in Richmond on Saturday.
It was the collective effort of the Mustang defense that turned the tide when it counted in the crucial parts of the game against Cloverdale.
“Our defense has been the biggest difference in our improved play since the beginning of the season,” noted St. Vincent coach Gary Galloway. “Cloverdale tightened up its offensive sets much like Tomales, and we have seen a lot of that recently.”
Cloverdale broke up a 7-7 deadlock after halftime with two long back-to-back scoring plays by running backs Luke Bernardi and Mason Meier. Bernardi scampered for 42 yards and Meier followed with a 65-yards score that might have deflated St. Vincent earlier in the season.
From that point on, however, the Mustangs kicked up the defense a couple of notches with major contributions by Justin Sablik, Paul Gregorian, Will Tarrant and Jordan Pech. Cloverdale could not get anything more going on the offensive side of the football, and failed on a fake punt attempt that was stopped a yard short of a first down in the final quarter.
In the meantime, Sammon went to work behind some aggressive blocking up front led by Sablick, and dashed for scores of 24 and 38 yards to close the gap to 21-19 half way through the final period.
After a major stop by Pech, the Eagles were forced to punt and a short kick got the ball to mid-field.
Two crippling penalties set the Mustangs back, but not for long. Two runs by Sammon and a pass completion of 13 yards from Dominic Pederson to Sammon earned St. Vincent a crucial first down.
Up to this point, Pederson had a big day with short yardage completions to a variety of receivers. But then, came the critical play of the game.
With time running out, the junior signal caller threw deep down field to versatile Sean Healy who out-legged the Cloverdale secondary for 25 yards and the eventual game winner. Healy, who also had some key moments on defense, went in untouched on his fifth grab of the afternoon.
Overall, Healy led all receivers with 43 yards, while teammate Scott Jepsen added three catches for 35 yards. Sammon and Nick Vollert contributed three grabs each.
Following a failed fake kick, the Mustangs had the ball deep in Cloverdale territory, but elected to play it safe rather than take risky chances to score again as time ran out.
Pedersen had a stellar outing with 17 completions good for 156 yards including seven straight hook-ups to open the game.
St. Vincent set an aggressive tone for the game when the Mustangs marched 69 yards in 13 plays to score first on a two-yard run by Sammon.
Cloverdale tied the score in the second quarter when a fourth down gamble by the Mustangs came inches short that allowed a short field for the visitors. Eagle quarterback Greg Scaramella snuck it in from the one-yard line.
The win for the Mustangs (7-4) is their seventh in succession after a slow start against strong competition this season.
Cloverdale came into the game rated No. 8 in the bracket, but traveled because St. Vincent, at No. 9, was the North Central II League champion. The Eagle season ends with an overall mark of 6-5.
Bernardi, who will return next season for Cloverdale, ended the season by rushing for 136 yards.
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