St John Bosco has been nothing short of dominant the first 6 games of this season, but playing 3 of the final 4 games on the road against ranked opponents was going to be the true test for the Braves. Friday night, Bosco (6-1, 1-1) did not pass the first test, losing 34-21 to Orange Lutheran (6-1, 2-0). The game was closer than the final score but ultimately came down to some big turnovers by the Braves and their inability to stop the Lancers run game.
There were a few things that I was looking for from the Braves: a fast start, lots of Braves sacks and takeaways, Keith Price to perform miracles, and a Bosco win. Unfortunately very little of that actually happened. Possibly fearing the Braves quick-strike offense, Orange Lutheran used the opening kickoff to try an onside and it worked. The very first play, Lancer QB Bobby Wheatley went deep to WR Scotty Williams who caught it, turned, and immediately proceeded to fumble it out of his own end zone for a Braves touchback. The ensuing drive, Bosco did nothing and punted back to Lutheran who got the ball at Bosco’s 45. They moved into the red zone and turned it over again- this time junior Austin Mahr picked it off at his own 3 and nearly returned it for a TD but was tripped up at the Lutheran 6. Two plays later Jared Ginter ran it in. 7-0 Bosco.
On the next play from scrimmage, the Lancers came out in the Wildcat formation- with running back Kyle Davis in the shotgun, WR Brandon Turner took it on the reverse, and threw it to Scotty Williams for a 55 yard touchdown, 7-7. Bosco responded with a 9-play 75-yard drive capped off by the now-typical Keith Price dodge-and-heave. Price took the snap, avoided multiple tacklers before throwing it up for Leon Mcfadden for 45-yard touchdown. 14-7 Bosco. The play was fun to watch, but throwing it up for grabs and having his receiver come down with it has become common for Price and last night it finally would come to bite him. The Lancers responded with a 7-play, 80 yard drive of their own, capped off by Wheatley throwing to Shane Sullivan. And for the 2nd week in a row, Bosco ended the first quarter tied at 14.
However the 2nd and 3rd quarters showed some Brave weaknesses for the first time this year. After going 3-and-out again, Bosco opened the 2nd quarter by punting to Lutheran. The Lancers go 12 plays and 74 yards, including 8 runs for 64 yards- to take a 21-14 lead; the first time the Braves have trailed all season. The next drive Bosco marches 44 yards down to the Lutheran 20, but a big holding penalty puts them in a tough situation. On 2nd and 20 from the Lancers 30, Keith Price tries to force it and throws just his 3 interception of the season.
To start the 3rd quarter Lutheran tried to throw it and Tierney Yates gets 2 sacks to force the Lancers to punt. Bosco took it at their own 40, and again Keith Price bought a ton of time in the backfield before finding Mcfadden for a 33 yard gain. They don’t get much else and down by 7 on the Lutheran 24, Bosco faced a 4th and 7. Auburn Jimenez has already hit a 51 yarder this year, so the 41 yards are well within his range. Instead Bosco coach Kiki Mendoza goes for it and Price tries to buy time in the backfield but ultimately could not find anyone. Lutheran takes the ball and after 2 short runs bring up 3rd down, again Yates comes up with a big sack to force Lutheran to punt. Again Bosco almost immediately faces a 3rd down, again with Price scrambling around and unable to find anyone, he tried to force it and again Lutheran picked it off. The Lancers went 3-and-out with 2 incompletes and it was probably around here they realized that throwing it was not their strong-suit, and that Bosco was having trouble stopping the run.
Bosco’s offense again sputtered forcing them to punt to start the 4th. Orange Lutheran then ran it 11 out of 12 plays for an 87-yard touchdown drive that ate up nearly 9 minutes of the fourth quarter. Bosco blocked the PAT but got the ball back down 27-14 with a little over 5 minutes to go.
The Braves started deep in their own territory and moved it into the Lancer side of the field. But after a short pass to Mcfadden and a short keeper for Price, Bosco faced a 3 and 4 on the Lutheran 32. Price dropped back to pass but couldn’t find anyone and eventually couldn’t keep shaking tacklers- he was sacked for a 4 yard loss. Down by 13, with only a few minutes to go Bosco had no choice but to go for it. And Lutheran knew exactly what the Braves were going to call. The Lancers must have called a field goal block formation because they brought just about everyone, Price couldn’t dump it off on 4th and long but he couldn’t avoid 9 Lancer tacklers either and was sacked again. With no Bosco timeouts left and 2 minutes plus remaining, the Lancers simply needed to run out the clock but on the first play from scrimmage Kyle Dravis broke for a 40 yard touchdown run to put Lutheran up 34-14. That put the exclamation point on a 32-carry, 252-yard night for the Lancers, more than doubling what the Braves had on the ground.
For the first time in a long time the Bosco Braves are a heavyweight contender. But they have spent their season thus far beating up on a mix of old rivals (St Paul, Loyola, Santa Margarita) and new sparring partners (Damien and Cabrillo.) Friday night, against a national power, the Braves were knocked to the mat. And what do contenders do when they get knocked down? They get right back up.
At the 2 minute mark, with no timeouts and down by 20, Keith Price and the St John Bosco Braves were having their worst night of the year. Price had thrown 2 picks (after having thrown only 2 picks his prior 6 games), had been sacked multiple times, and had less than 20 yards on the ground (he’s been averaging more than 60 a game). But after a big Austin Mahr 15 yard run, Price completed his next four passes (not including a couple of spikes), and on 4th and 2 from the Lutheran 15, he found that magic again scrambling for 15 yards and a touchdown.
Orange Lutheran are a tremendous team. They came up with some huge takeaways and some huge sacks. They could not be stopped on the ground. They are without a doubt one of the best teams in Southern California. And they knocked the Bosco Braves down. But this year, with this team, don’t count the Braves out yet.
Bring on JSerra. Bring on Mater Dei. Bring on Servite. After their first loss of the year, Bosco is going to get right back up and they will keep fighting.