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Matt Dougherty connected with Nico Andrighetto on a 16-yard touchdown pass with 15.7 seconds left in the game as St. Francis pulled off a monumental, historic upset of De La Salle, 31-28, Friday night in Mountain View.
De La Salle had not lost to a team from Northern California since 1991. The St. Francis win put an end to a 318-game unbeaten streak. The Spartans had gone 316-0-2 against teams north of Fresno since losing to Pittsburg in the 1991 NCS playoffs.
It also ended an 11-game losing streak for St. Francis against De La Salle, a streak that dated back to a Lancers win in 1989.
And the winning touchdown for St. Francis came right after De La Salle had taken its first lead of the game. A 5-yard run by AJ Bianchina with 1:38 left put a capper on a De La Salle comeback from a 24-7 deficit. St. Francis trailed for the first time in the game, 28-24.
St. Francis (2-0) took over on its own 24. Dougherty hit tight end Dillon Golden for 14 yards. Then on a first and 15, running back Viliami Teu, who had a monster game with 181 yards rushing on 21 carries, ripped off a 27-yard gain.
That gave the Lancers a first down at the DLS 40 with 36 seconds left. Dougherty passed to Tim Natane for 9 yards and hit on a long pass to Andrew Adkison for 33 yards and a first down at the 1.
But instead of first and goal at the 1, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was called on the Lancers and the ball was moved back to the 16.
No problem, as it turned out. Dougherty found a wide-open Andrighetto in the middle of the field near the goal line on the next play, and the 30-year-long De La Salle winning streak had come to an end.
St. Francis jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on a 16-yard pass from Dougherty to Netane and a 10-yard run by Teu.
De La Salle (2-1) responded with a touchdown run by Zeke Barber, but Dougherty and Netane hooked up for a second time on a 30-yard scoring pass right before halftime, making it 21-7 St. Francis at the break.
A 22-yard field goal increased the St. Francis lead to 24-7 early in the third quarter.
(The last time De La Salle trailed a Northern California team by 17 points was in a 32-0 loss to Salesian in 1979, according to De La Salle TV color analyst Damin Esper.)
Zeke Berry returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a DLS touchdown. And once the Spartans got the ball back they went 58 yards in 10 plays with QB Luke Dermon scoring from the 1.
The Spartans had drawn within 24-21 and were officially on the attack to preserve the program’s ingrained habit of dominating opponents and winning football games.
They drove inside the St. Francis 5 only to lose a fumble with 6:56 left. Seemingly in their unstoppable mode, they got the ball back and this time went 68 yards in seven plays to take the lead.
But this was a night St. Francis would not be denied.
St. Francis finished with 359 yards of total offense, 235 of it on the ground. Dougherty completed 7 of 15 passes for 124 yards and three touchdowns.
De La Salle had 325 yards total offense, 248 rushing.