The St. Francis Lancers dropped their home opener to the Palma Chieftains, 20-15. The Lancers have now lost their first two games in the season in close fashion, while the Chieftains open the season with a hard-fought victory in a bizarre contest interrupted by a severe weather delay.
The second half was delayed by almost an hour due to a thunderstorm. Coming out of the half, it was clear that the Lancers came out with a burst of energy while the Chieftains came out a little flat. St. Francis took advantage on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Colin Johnson to Braden Bishop on a fourth-and-16 play to take a 15-14 lead. However, the lead was short-lived, as Palma came back to take a third-quarter lead on a 15-yard TD run by senior John Myers.
"It just goes back to eliminating mistakes," said St. Francis head coach Nick Navarro.
Mistakes were what ended up costing the Lancers the game, as Palma took back the momentum midway through the fourth quarter. A Palma punt was fumbled by returner David Mapa and was recovered deep in Lancer territory by Palma.
St. Francis could not recover from the mistakes, and lost after the last drive stalled on a 4th and long situation near the red-zone.
"We're probably one or two mistakes away from winning that football game, said Navarro. "That's how close it gets when you have good, good football opponents."
Palma has certainly proven to be a very good opponent, as it notched a second straight victory over the Lancers counting last season's win in the CCS Playoffs.
"I think it really helps us in the future to play teams like St. Francis," said Palma head coach Jeff Carnazzo. "They're disciplined and they play the same type of football that we do."
Palma's defense caused problems for the St. Francis run game throughout the game, and the Chieftains were able to put pressure on Johnson all evening. Other than that, they simply did a better job than the Lancers of taking advantage of mistakes.
The Palma offense slowly moved the chains with a balanced offense, though it did not show explosiveness. The Chieftains scored two offensive touchdowns, but they really set the tone for the game early in the first quarter when a St. Francis punt was blocked and returned 45 yards for a touchdown by Matthias Lopez.
In the first half, Palma had control of the game until midway through the second quarter, when St. Francis running back Landon Baty took over. In a breakout performance, the sophomore had a 47-yard run that set up his own short touchdown run to make the score 14-9.
"I like to run hard and be physical - I came with that approach, and hopefully it [worked]," said Baty. "I hope I have proved myself as a sophomore. I know there are a lot of great guys out there. Football is a game of opportunity, and I took it."
For the Lancers, however, the game came down to a few mistakes, including missed blocking assignments, and failure to convert third downs. For the Chieftains, the game came down to capitalizing on St. Francis's mistakes and holding down the run game, which they did with the exception of a few big runs.
"We have some tough games coming up, said Carnazzo, whose Chieftains next visit St. Joseph (Santa Maria). "By playing [St. Francis], it helps us in the future."
Navarro feels that the Lancers will learn from this game.
"I don't think that any game sets the tone [for the season]," he said. "I think you learn from what happens. You're always moving forward."
