Sports
Football: St. Mary's Falls to Christian Brothers 36-28
Torres' 294 yards in the air aren't enough to overcome Falcons' stifling option offense.
Christian Brothers 36, St. Mary's 28
The Star: Francisco Torres passed for 294 yards and four touchdowns, keeping his team in the game until the final horn.
The Turning Point: Torres brought the Panthers within two scores with 10 minutes to go in the game, but the Christian Brothers' offense had worn St. Mary's defense down by the fourth quarter, and the Falcons took the ball 65 yards in a little over three minutes to put the game out of reach.
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The Quote: "It was like torture. They keep hitting you and hitting you and they're going to get their yards," St. Mary's head coach Keith Minor said.
What's next? St. Mary's plays Sacred Heart Catholic on Friday, Sept. 17, at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco at 7 p.m.
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Bottom Line: The Panthers have some fine tuning to do, but didn't look bad for a morning game for which they had to be at school by 6 a.m., and on the field just hours later.
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Francisco Torres kept the St. Mary's High football team in the game, but with time running out in the fourth quarter, his team ran out of scoring options.
It wasn't the case for the Christian Brothers' option offense, which ran the ball for 388 yards and scored early and often, en-route to a 36-28 at Del Oro High in Loomis.
Torres had deep completions of 54 and 55 yards late in the fourth quarter, a big part of his 294 yards passing and four touchdowns on the day. He connected with receiver Chris Carnegie with three second left in the game, but it was all for naught.
Afterward, Torres ran in the two-point conversion to make it a one-possession game, but St. Mary's onside kick on the ensuing kickoff was recovered by the Falcons to end the game.
"He's a dynamic player. He's a little short but he does a very good job with what he has. We have some good wide receivers, and they're just going to grow and get better throughout the year," St. Mary's head coach Keith Minor said.
Carnegie made a couple nice moves on the 55-yard touchdown catch in the fourth, and finished with 119 yards and two scores. Tight end David Thomas also made a big catch late in the first half to add to Torres' numbers.
With 34 seconds left in the second quarter, Torres drove the Panthers 62 yards in less than 30 seconds, topped with him lobbing a deep pass to Thomas, just over the extended hands of Christian Brothers' Ade' Jackson to make it a one-point deficit at the half.
The Falcons would then score back-to-back touchdowns in the third. Jackson led the charge on Christian Brothers' opening possession of the second half, rushing for 71 of his 94 yards and capping it with a 21-yard scamper to the end zone to extend the lead to 22-14.
St. Mary's chose to go for it on fourth-and-seven from midfield late in the third quarter, but Torres fumbled the ball and recovered it at the 35, forcing a turnover-on-downs.
The Panthers' option offense took advantage of the mistake. Needing just four plays, quarterback Ryan Peabody ran it up the middle for a seven-yard touchdown run, and a 29-14 Christian Brothers advantage.
Any chance of a Panthers' comeback ended when running back Jeremiah Sims scored from one yard out in the fourth quarter, giving Christian Brothers a two-possession lead with six minutes remaining in regulation.
Whether the ball was kept by Peabody or handed off to running back Aaron Terrell-Byrd, Christian Brothers rushed the ball with ease. Peabody finished with 75 yards rushing and Terrell-Byrd 148. Sims tacked on 58 yards on the ground.
"A lot of first game mistakes that we're made on our part: lining up wrong, giving up contain, things like that, that if we do it correctly, we easily could have reversed the score," Panthers' head coach Keith Minor said.
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Christian Brothers 36, St. Mary's 28
St. Mary's 8 6 6 8 — 28
Christian Brothers 7 8 14 7 — 36
Scoring summary
6:13, 1st: CB - Terrell-Byrd 3 run (Templeton kick)
3:08, 1st: STM - Carnegie 4 pass from Torres (Richard III run)
6:25, 2nd: CB - Lane Jr. 9 pass from Peabody (Templeton kick)
0:02, 2nd: STM - Thomas 34 pass from Torres (run failed)
6:47, 3rd: CB - Jackson 21 run (Templeton kick)
2:28, 3rd: CB - Peabody 7 run (Templeton kick)
9:59 4th: STM - Richard III 21 pass from Torres (pass failed)
6:48 4th: CB - Sims 1 run (Templeton kick)
0:03 4th: STM - Carnegie 55 pass from Torres (Torres run)
Individual Statistics
Rushing (car-yards): STM — Richard III 20-43, Torres 4-17, Thompson 3-10. CB — Terrell-Byrd 27-148, Peabody 14-75, Jackson 8-94, Sims 7-58, Lane Jr. 1-11, Brown 1-2.
Passing (comp-att-yards-ints): STM — Torres 15-33-0-294. CB — Peabody 5-12-1-44.
Receiving (rec-yards): STM — Carnegie 7-119, Weinsten 1-9, Richard III 3-30, Williams 1-28, Thomas 2-45, Thompson 1-9, Coleman 1-54. CB —Terrell-Byrd 1-10, Templeton 1-13, Lane Jr. 2-23, Sims 1-(-2).
Team offense (rush-pass-total)
St. Mary's— 70-294-364
Christian Brothers — 432-44-388
Fumbles/lost: STM — 2/0; CB — 2/1.
Records: St. Mary's 0-1, Christian Brothers 1-0.
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