By Luke Holthouse
A game winning 37-yard field goal made with two seconds left in the game ended the varsity football team’s four game winning streak last night at St. Francis. The Wolverines began league play with a 23-20 loss to the Knights dropping their record to 4-2.
The field goal capped off a 66-yard drive that started at St. Francis’s 14-yard line with 44 seconds left in the game. The Wolverines had a 10-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter but were unable to hang on to their lead.
“They made big plays and we didn’t,” Head Coach Vic Eumont said, “we had some guys that were fatigued and had come out of the game, and we just didn’t come up with the big play. And we made too many mistakes early. We should have been up more than what we were at that point.”
A list of mistakes include not only several deep completions surrendered by the defense but also three turnovers, several penalties and a missed extra point by the offense.
Richard Chung ’12 said that the defense struggled against St. Francis’s passing game calling their aerial attack the best the Wolverines had seen since their loss to Venice in the first game of the season.
Down 10-0 in the second quarter, the Wolverines were able to steal momentum going into half time thanks to a touchdown pass from quarterback Chad Kanoff ’13 to receiver Clinton Hooks ’13 followed by a rushing touchdown by Kanoff on the next drive. Kanoff’s 19-yard rush was on a fourth down and twelve with under a minute left in the half. A key goal line stand by the Wolverines defense kept the lead in Harvard-Westlake’s favor as St. Francis elected to go for a touchdown rather than a field goal on the last play of the half inside the Wolverines’ 5-yard line but were stuffed on a run up the middle.
Another touchdown pass from Kanoff ’13 to Chris Sebastian ’13 in the third quarter extended the Wolverines’ lead to 20-10 before St. Francis’ comeback.
The loss was a noticeable improvement from last year’s 34-14 loss against St. Francis. Last year’s team was 0-5 in the Mission League, but Eumont said that the Wolverines should be more competitive in the Mission League this year evident by last night’s performance. The Wolverines play at Chaminade next Friday, Oct. 21. Chaminade is 5-1 on the season and 1-0 in league after a win last night against St. Paul.
