After two early season last-minute losses, Point Loma’s Pointer football team was hoping to avoid another similar heartbreaker last Friday night against Div. I Rancho Bernardo at beautifully lit Pete Ross Stadium.
\nWith just over three minutes left in the game and the Div. II Dogs clinging to a slim 10-7 lead, they gave possession to the Broncos and many fans began squirming uneasily in\u00a0their seats.
\nBut when Bronco QB Noah Morris threw a pass over the middle, Pointer Tristan Shafer snatched it with a great effort to give his team possession at the Bronco 35.
\nWhen a\u00a0fourth down Dogs\u2019 play at the Bronco 14 failed, the visitors got the ball back again with 45 seconds to play. But once again Morris’ desperation pass was stolen, this time by Pointer Kaden Gill to squelch any Bronco hopes.
\nFrom here, the Pointers ran out the clock to even their record at 2-2.
\nEarlier, Zak Makis also pilfered a crucial pass by Morris as the Broncos threatened just before halftime, adding to an impressive number of picks by the Pointer\u00a0secondary of late.
\nThe team’s two losses were by a total of three points, so they would be 4-0 had they not allowed two last-minute scoring drives at El Camino and Otay Ranch.
\n“It was a full team effort by all the boys,” a relieved Pointer\u00a0head coach Mike Hastings said after a long and loud celebration in his team’s locker room. “We had some injuries, two of them to our team captains Wes Windmiller and Cameron Auva’a, and the young kids really stepped into\u00a0their roles. Alex Silva made some big plays for Wes and Landon Green filled in for Cameron.”
\nNeither team moved the ball consistently in the first half. Andy Medina’s 27-yard field goal gave the Pointers a 3-0 lead in the first quarter but a Dog fumble gave the Broncos a break and the ball at the Pointer 21 at the end of the opening frame.
\nThe Broncos capitalized when they scored 41 seconds into the second quarter.\u00a0
\nFor much of the game Pointer punter Ricky Borjon saw plenty of action as both teams’ drives were repeatedly stalled. One of Borjon’s boots covered 65 yards.
\nIn the third quarter, JL Skinner took a short pass, ran right, turned the corner and covered 83 yards for an apparent touchdown that was called back when a Pointer player was\u00a0penalized for making helmet-to-helmet contact.
\nFast forward to the final quarter with just over four minutes left to play. Christian Hall broke a 45-yard run that led to the dramatic Pointer touchdown. A 15-yard scramble by QB Jason Peres preceded a two-yard blast by Gill for the score. Medina’s PAT ended Pointer scoring with just 3:47 left to play.
\n“Our defense\u00a0produced three turnovers,” Hastings noted. “Their only score was when we gave them the ball after a fumble on a short field, but we held them out otherwise. The offense did what they had to at the end of the game to get us those decisive points. After two very frustrating losses it was very nice to win a close game the way we did with that Kaden Gill interception.” Otay Ranch 19, Pointers 17
\nAfter taking a 17-0 lead into the final quarter at the southwest Chula Vista school, the Pointers yielded 19 points in the final 6:47 of the game to suffer a bitter loss.
\nPointer points came in the first half on a Medina field goal, a short Gill run and Skinner’s 69-yiard run on a wildcat play in the final minute before the break. The Pointers were never to score again.
\nFor the Mustangs, their game-winning score came after a 65-yard drive with 34 seconds left, sending a Homecoming crowd into a frenzy as sweat-soaked and stunned Pointer players looked on.\u00a0 Next
\nThe Pointers make another visit to the South Bay to meet Div. II Olympian tomorrow night in a non-league skirmish. The Eagles are currently 1-3 with their lone win against Hilltop. They played the county’s No. 1 ranked team Torrey Pines in Week 3 and lost 35-0. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Extra points
\nThe Pointers play three more Div. I teams, all of them fellow members of the Western League. St. Augustine is currently rated No. 1 in the division, Madison is No. 3 and Cathedral Catholic stands at No. 7.
\nThe team takes its annual bye after the Olympian game, returning to play on Oct. 28 in the big annual Homecoming game against University City. Kickoff is at 6:30.
\nThis was believed to be the Pointers’ first-ever meeting with the Broncos.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After two early season last-minute losses, Point Loma’s Pointer football team was hoping to avoid another similar heartbreaker last Friday night against Div. I Rancho Bernardo at beautifully lit Pete Ross Stadium. With just over three minutes left in the game and the Div. II Dogs clinging to a slim 10-7 lead, they gave possession […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":281865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Pointers corral Broncos, lose late to Otay","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561,11553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}