It was a tense moment for the undefeated Point Loma High School (PLHS) Pointers football team and their fans Sept. 18 on Bennie Edens Field.??Leading the visiting El Capitan squad by a slim 9-7 margin with seven minutes left in the final quarter of the showdown, the Vaqueros were facing a fourth down at the Pointers’ 17-yard line.??Onto the field trotted Brooks Noble, El Cap’s placekicker, fully intent on booting a 24-yard field goal to give his team a 10-7 lead and perhaps pin the Pointers with their first defeat.?It was not a good moment to be a fingernail.?Enter Point Loma senior defensive back/running back Zach Gemmill, determined that Noble was not going to hang a loss on his team. “All I could think of,” Gemmill said, “was blocking that kick. I couldn’t walk away with a loss.”??Gemmill lined up in his normal position on the left side of the special teams formation. At the snap, he sprinted towards the center of the field, hoping to arrive before the ball soared between the uprights. But something was strange.??”Nobody blocked me,” said a surprised Gemmill after the ball bounced off his body, allowing the Pointers to escape with the victory and remain undefeated at 3-0. “I almost ran past the kicker, who was slow when the holder mishandled the ball.”??Gemmill’s block was huge, but there were plenty of other Pointers who played key roles in turning back the pesky Vaqueros. A 46-yard first-quarter pass completion from quarterback Sean McKaveny to Davis Callejon helped set up a 32-yard field goal by Ruben Diaz and a 3-0 Pointer lead. The game’s most critical sequence was a brilliant second-quarter goal-line stand by Point Loma defenders, during which El Capitan actually fumbled twice on its final play. Anthony Joyner recovered for the Pointers on the one-yard line. The Point Loma offense then responded with a 99-yard drive for the hosts’ only touchdown of the game. “That goal-line stand was one of the better ones in my 16 years at Point Loma,” head coach Mike Hastings said later. “Then that drive was a huge swing, a real momentum boost.” Gemmill ended the drive with a one-yard run. A wide extra point kick left the Pointers with a 9-0 cushion as the teams broke for halftime. The Pointer defense’s streak without being scored upon ended in the third quarter when the Vaqueros, on the first play after a pass interception, scored on a 30-yard screen pass. With the point after, the Pointers clung to their 9-7 lead, which would be the final score. In the fourth quarter, a Pointer punt gave the Vaqueros one last possession 88 yards from the end zone with 1:11 left. El Capitan was moving the ball but Point Loma’s Emilio Diaz intercepted an errant pass to seal the narrow victory. Defensively, the Pointers gave the Vaqueros all they could handle. Joyner had another big game as he was credited with three quarterback sacks and the goal-line fumble recovery. Christian Hayward recorded two sacks and Sean Stepina added another. “I was proud of our effort,” Hastings said. “This was a great building game for us as we get ready for league.” The varsity victory followed losses to the Vaqueros by the Pointer freshmen (29-18) and junior varsity (49-20), leaving each team with a 1-2 record. The undefeated varsity Pointers (3-0) face their toughest test of the season when they travel to Scripps Ranch (also undefeated at 2-0) on Friday, Sept. 26 for a non-league doubleheader. Junior varsity teams meet at 4 p.m. with varsity action kicking off at 6:30 p.m. The Falcons (CIF Division II, Eastern League) are coming off a bye week and feature running back Brennan Clay, who totaled 282 yards from scrimmage in a 37-14 victory over Poway.