Atascadero edges SLO to remain unbeaten while Arroyo Grande upsets St. Joseph

Atascadero and Arroyo Grande posted big victories on Friday night with the Greyhounds coming up with a huge special teams play to secure a win and the Eagles upsetting five-time Mountain League champion St. Joseph.

Atascadero blocked a game-tying extra point to earn a 21-20 victory over Ocean League rival San Luis Obispo.

In a tight battle against the Knights, Arroyo Grande found the end zone for two late scores to pull away for a 28-10 win.

Elsewhere, Mission Prep beat Nipomo and Paso Robles was no match for Lompoc, while Templeton lost a close one to Santa Maria.

Atascadero 21, San Luis Obispo 20

Atascadero came out on top Friday in a showdown of two of the top Ocean League teams at San Luis Obispo High School, thanks to two missed kicks by the Tigers and some gamesmanship by the Greyhounds’ coach.

In a dramatic contest that involved the lights cutting out, multiple controversial penalties and a blocked point after attempt, Atascadero held on for the 21-20 victory.

The victory pushed Greyhound (5-0, 2-0 Ocean) winning streak to 10 dating back to last season, thwarting a San Luis Obispo (3-3, 1-1 Ocean) team that was looking to avenge its loss to Atascadero last year.

“Last year was a really huge game for us because we really needed to prove ourselves and SLO is the marking stick,” Cooper said. “That win last year was huge for us, and I think they came in with that kind of attitude as well.”

The Tigers were down two scores at 21-7 with under five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when quarterback Jace Gomes connected on a 50-yard strike to Finnigan Hickey to narrow the deficit to one touchdown.

After a defensive stop and a poor Greyhounds’ punt gave SLO strong field position, Gomes and the offense had a chance to tie the game with under a minute left.

Gomes dropped back and turned to his right before reversing field and scrambling into the end zone unscathed.

On the point after attempt, however, Atascadero quarterback Kane Cooks, who also plays backup safety, went into the game on special teams and jumped to block the kick, preserving the Greyhounds’ lead.

During a practice leading up to the game, Cooks said he blocked a field goal.

“I figured I could do it again,” Cooks said. “I knew I had to block it. I knew we didn’t have another good chance to score.”

The missed kick ended a game that saw Gomes and Cooks dueling all night.

Gomes finished with two touchdowns on the ground and a passing score while Cooks had two rushing touchdowns of his own.

Gomes got the Tigers on the board first with an 11-yard rushing touchdown halfway through the first quarter.

But Cooks responded and on a broken play, scrambled to his right before connecting with a receiver in the red zone. That set the QB up for a 3-yard keeper that tied the score.

The Tigers’ defense made a stop and forced the Greyhounds to punt, but the short kick hit an unsuspecting Tigers player on the return team before it was recovered by the Greyhounds.

The Hounds then marched down for another rushing score by Cooks, this one for 2 yards.

At the end of the second half, the Tigers had a chance to score before the break.

With 0.9 seconds left, SLO came out to kick a field goal before Greyhounds’ head coach Victor Cooper called a timeout.

During the timeout, the lights went off at the field. When they came back on, Cooper subsequently used the rest of his timeouts to ice the kicker and Ben Oetman ultimately missed the field goal.

In the third quarter, running back Joseph Hyde put the Greyhounds up 21-7 with an 11-yard touchdown and Atascadero defensive back Mason Degnan intercepted a pass from Gomes.

For the Tigers, Head Coach Pat Johnston felt that the game was a “championship-style” matchup.

“If you want to win a championship, you just have to make those plays consistently,” Johnston said.

Johnston called the Greyhounds a balanced team that does well in the trenches.

“But again, it felt just like that last year,” Johnston said, “It was an evenly matched game and they made less mistakes than we did.”

Atascadero next faces Oakland in a non-league game on Friday, while San Luis Obispo is at Pioneer Valley.

Arroyo Grande 28, St. Joseph 10

Looking for their first win against perennial powerhouse St. Joseph in five years, Arroyo Grande secured a huge Mountain League upset in front of a packed home crowd on Friday night.

The Eagles (4-1, 2-0) used multiple weapons on offense, keeping the Knights (3-2, 1-1) off guard with a balanced passing and running attack.

Four Arroyo Grande players scored touchdowns, including a passing connection between quarterback Drake Missamore and Caleb Clark and rushing scores from Moses Diaz, Ben Walz and Junior Herlihy.

“Our team has been working our butt off in practice and that really showed in the game,“ Missamore said. “And the excitement from the crowd and everyone really, really gets us going. Our crowd, our community is amazing.”

The Knights closed the margin to 14–10 in the third quarter, but the Eagles pulled away with aggressive tackling that limited St. Joseph’s offense. Meanwhile, the Eagles offense effectively moved the chains with darting runs and strong blocking that led to two fourth-quarter scores and sealed the game.

Eagles Coach Mike Hartman said his Arroyo Grande team is well-balanced and had an effective game plan designed by a skilled assistant coaching crew.

“We don’t have superstars,” Hartman said. “We’re really a good high school football team.”

St. Joseph has been the Mountain League champion the past five years, losing just one league game over that period in 2021-22.

“We talked about one of our goals team goals to be in season was to win a Mountain League title,” Hartman said. “Now in order to do that you have to beat the defending champions. So our next biggest game of the season is next week. Because there are no easy games in the Mountain League.”

Herlihy said the Eagles had good practices all week.

“Like coach says, games aren’t won on Friday,” Herlihy said. “They are won during the week, and we had really good practices Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.”

Arroyo Grande is at Nipomo on Friday.

Mission Prep 22, Nipomo 6

Nipomo (2-3, 0-2 Mountain) held Mission Prep (4-1, 2-0 Mountain) scoreless for the first half before the Royals got their offense going and scored two touchdowns in the third quarter en route to a 22-6 victory, according to MaxPreps.

Royals Coach David Schuster said the team’s slow start was due to a busy week of school activities and a need for better coaching preparation.

“I could have done a better job of getting the team ready,” Schuster said. “There were a million distractions for the kids, but that takes nothing away from Nipomo. They had a great game plan.”

Drew Harrigan opened the scoring with a 38-yard touchdown run minutes into the third quarter before following with a 52-yard touchdown as the quarter ran down.

A safety and then a 60-yard punt return by Jayden Nozil pushed the score to 22-0 before the Titans broke up the shutout with a 1-yard touchdown by Blayne Lowry.

“Drew probably broke 200 yards rushing on the night and Jayden showed off his athleticism,” Schuster said. “And I’m deeply proud of our defense.”

Mission Prep travels to Paso Robles on Friday, while Nipomo hosts Arroyo Grande.

Lompoc 52, Paso Robles 14

Lompoc (3-2, 1-1 Mountain) piled up the touchdowns in a lopsided win over Paso Robles (1-4, 1-1 Mountain) on Friday.

After scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter, the Braves added another four in the second to take a 42-14 lead at the half, according to MaxPreps.

The Bearcats scored their two touchdowns in the second quarter on runs by Ashton Murphy and Parker Craig.

Paso Robles hosts Mission Prep on Friday.

Santa Maria 24, Templeton 19

Templeton fell to 3-2 and and 0-1 in the Ocean League in a road loss to Santa Maria.

Anthony Chavez scored two touchdowns for the Eagles, while River Waltmire added another.

Templeton is away at Cabrillo on Friday.

This story was originally published September 22, 2023 at 11:48 PM.