Long Day's Journey into the Night for an Amat Victory Over Chaminade
/In spite of an offensive holding call by the CEO for a late afternoon work meeting, your intrepid blogger and Amat football fanatic was able to go long on the 5, run an end around on the 605, engineer a long drive on the 105, hit the hole at the 405, and shake off an interference call on the 105 to score a prime parking spot to watch Amat win their first away game 30-22 over a tough Chaminade Eagles team Friday night.
So what did I miss? Two short touchdown runs by Torreanho Sweet and a 21 yard touchdown catch by Tyler Vaughns to give the Lancers a 24-14 halftime lead.
What did I see? Spectacular catches by Vaughns, including a one-handed how-in-the-world-did he-make-that catch late in the fourth. He added a 69 yard punt return and second quarter interception to his 11 catches for a 198 yards performance. There was also a predictable strong running performance by Sweet, who ended the evening with three touchdowns and 159 rushing yards on 35 carries.
The Lancers might have to say a prayer of thanks for all the home games they got to enjoy this season. There definitely seems to be a Jekyll/Hyde quality to the Lancers when it comes to home/away games. Kiefer Stadium brings out mistake-free football while the Lancers on the road have uncharacteristic turnovers, spates of disorganization, and lack-of-concentration issues.
Missed extra points on bad snaps, missed scoring opportunities in the red zone, and mishandling of the rock always give an opposing team the chance to get back in the game. The Eagles did just that with a late fourth quarter surge that brought them within eight points with two minutes left in the game. Amat recovered the onside kick to seal the hard fought victory.
Standouts of the night were the usual suspects of Sweet and Vaughns. Trevon Sidney was MIA with a toe injury. The defense hung tough with defensive back Aaron Austin and linebacker Ricky Schneider making big plays.
The season is winding down with one final away league game against Loyola in two weeks. The Lancers (and my car) get a well-earned bye next week.
The stage is being set for a CIF run. Will everybody be healthy by then? Will the Lancers work out some of the kinks in their armor? Will we ever solve the traffic congestion problem in LA? The respective answers are hope so, probably and when Hades freezes over.
HUGO RICARDO
Hugo is a contributing writer to the ConceptuaLine blog and an accomplished copywriter in both English and Spanish. Catch him on Friday nights supporting Lancer football.
