After trailing for most of the day, St. Francis senior Javier Fonseca was on the verge of capping off the regular-season opener with a potential game-winning drive.
But the miraculous comeback fell short following a huge defensive stop by King City on the Sharks’ final possession of the game in a 24-19 non-league loss Aug. 31.
It wasn’t quite the outcome senior quarterback Javier Fonseca and his teammates envisioned, yet they were still happy about returning to the gridiron in front of a packed home crowd on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
“It felt amazing to get back on the field, I missed it very much even though we didn’t come out with the win. We, as a team, fought together and left it all out there. Hopefully we get the home crowd a better outcome this week,” Fonseca said.
Senior wide receiver Jesse Navarro echoed his teammate’s statement.
“It feels great getting back on the field in front of the home crowd and seeing all of our supporters to cheer us on and keep us motivated,” Navarro said.
It was a slow start for the Sharks’ offense in the first half due to penalties and missed assignments. Head coach John Ausman said making halftime adjustments is what helped them settle in the second half.
“I am very proud of our guys for how hard they fought, there were many times they had a chance to quit in the game and they didn’t,” Ausman said.
Ausman anticipated an all-out tussle against King City and its skipper, Mac Villanueva.
The Mustangs took an early 7-0 lead with a touchdown run by Carson Tidwell at the halfway point of the first quarter. Tidwell finished the game with an impressive 156 yards rushing on 19 carries and three rushing touchdowns.
St. Francis cut the deficit at 7-5 with a field goal by Aiden Hernandez and a defensive safety in the first quarter. King City stole the momentum right back with another TD run by Tidwell, extending their lead at 14-5 going into halftime.
Ausman said he was pleased with how his players stepped in the second half and sees great things for the rest of this season. He also credited Fonseca for lifting the team with a roster of just 26.
“A lot of our guys really impressed me, we have guys that have never played football before that were making plays for us,” Ausman said.
Fonseca said he knew what to fix at the break if he wanted a chance to win the game.
“We gave them a fight until the very last second,” Fonseca said.
In the third quarter, the Mustangs extended their lead at 17-5 with an early field goal.
Yet, the Sharks continued to hang around. They cut their deficit to 24-12 in the fourth quarter when Fonseca hit Donovan Dominguez for a touchdown strike, their first of the season.
Navarro said they relied on the passing game going into the second half, which helped them make more plays down the field and allowed Fonseca to use his feet a little more.
“Going into the second half we focused on the passing game which helped us come back, while also having the mentality that we weren’t going to give up, and we were gonna keep fighting until the last whistle,” Navarro said.
Later in the fourth, Fonseca continued to make plays with feet and scored on the ground, making it a one possession game with the score at 24-19.
But it wasn’t enough as the Mustangs’ defense prevailed in the end for the win.
Ausmen said he wants to learn from this loss and is ready to put it to bed.
“It was a tough loss in our first game but we just got to keep working and battle, all the chips will eventually fall into place,” he said. “Today it didn’t go our way but we will learn from this. I can go to bed knowing we worked hard today…We just all have to get to work on Tuesday.”
St. Francis will host Pajaro Valley at Strawberry Stadium on Sept. 7. Kick off is slated for 12:30pm.
