Central Catholic wins thriller in Sac-Joaquin Section quarterfinal matchup with Lodi
Central Catholic’s Julian Lopez rarely plays noseguard, but when his number was called Friday night, he was ready.
With 14 seconds left, Lopez lined up across from Lodi’s center and on the snap, ripped through the middle of the Flames’ offensive line as quarterback Adam Schallberger scanned through the thick fog that had descended onto the field.
Lopez wrapped up the opposing quarterback as time expired to help the Raiders avoid a massive upset, securing a 38-34 win.
“We found a way to win,” Canepa said. “That’s playoff football right there. That took a little off my life, at 58.
“I need a break. I (almost) had a heart attack.”
Said Lopez on the game-clinching play: “Normally I don’t play nose, but I was like, man, I’ll do it just one time. ... I promised my team I wasn’t going to drive home crying. I promised them I wasn’t going to let them down.”
Lodi came withing seconds of an upset on the back of Maceo McDowell, who finished with 215 rushing yards and two touchdowns of 32 and 69 yards. He also added a 75-yard run that set up a 5-yard Schallberger touchdown.
“Defensively, we’ve got to get better,” said coach Roger Canepa. “The way we tackled was terrible. We’ve got to clean some stuff up in the secondary.”
The Raiders went into halftime with a 17-14 lead but couldn’t pull away in the second half.
Lopez, who finished with 180 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, took a third quarter handoff 54 yards for a score to put the Raiders ahead 31-20 in the third. However, special teams struggled to recover two onside kicks, which resulted in back-to-back Flames touchdowns, giving them a 34-31 lead with 8 minutes, 33 seconds in the fourth quarter.
“We worked (recovering onside kicks) all week,” Canepa said on the Raiders special teams preparation. “You can’t put more than eight guys up there. There’s no more you can do, you got to make plays.”
Despite their mistakes, the Raiders’ offense came up big when it needed to.
Trailing by three points with 4 minutes left in the game, the Raiders marched 85 yards on what would be the game-winning drive.
Fighting through intense fog, Tyler Wentworth completed a 32-yard pass to Ayden Halverson to get the drive going.
“I can’t even see the middle backers, let alone the safeties and anything else,” said Wentworth, who completed 8 of 11 passes for 150 yards and one touchdown. “It’s fun because it brings energy to the game but at the same time it’s tough.
“Coach told me to keep (the ball on that play) because I couldn’t really see anybody and then I saw him streaking at the end and I was just like, ‘Chuck it. Give him a chance.’ ”
With less than a minute left, Aiden Taylor capped a 110-yard, two-touchdown game with an 18-yard run from that ended up being the deciding factor.
“I wanted to score and leave them with no time, but I left them 40 seconds,” said Canepa.
The Raiders host Antelope (10-0) in the semifinals next Friday at 7 p.m.
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 1:58 AM.
