King’s Way Christian falls just short against La Center

LA CENTER — King’s Way Christian and La Center battled for 47 minutes and 58 seconds Friday night at the Wildcats’ new on-campus stadium.

Then, for the final two seconds, all both teams could do was watch as the Knights’ Austin Lauser’s 51-year field goal try sailed through the night sky.

And when his kick dipped below the crossbar, the La Center players and their fans exhaled as one. The 10th-ranked Wildcats had survived King’s Way Christian’s frantic comeback to pull out a 26-24 victory in both teams’ Trico 1A League opener.

“A sense of relief, definitely,” said senior Brett Judd, who ran for 92 yards and three touchdowns for the Wildcats (4-1). “I was super nervous. I could not tell you really how nervous I was, because I can’t control it after he kicks it. But I wouldn’t change this feeling for anything else in the world.”

The Knights (4-1) nearly overcame a 20-3 halftime deficit before falling in the first Trico game in the program’s history.

“I thought we could do it, but we came up just short,” said  Jonathan Stell, a Seton Catholic junior playing for the Knights. “But we showed our true colors in the second half. This was our first true battle this year, and I feel that we stepped up.”

La Center looked to have the game won when Judd’s 14-yard run gave it first down at the KWC 12 with 1:49 to play. But the Knights burned all their timeouts, and Chandler Wann came up with a fourth-down stop in the Wildcats backfield to give KWC one last chance.

“Didn’t cross my mind,” Wildcats coach John Lambert said of possibly kicking a field goal. “I figured they had no timeouts and a long way to go.”

The Knights almost found a way. Liam Nabors hit on four passes, and a personal foul penalty helped King’s Way Christian negotiate its way from its 4 all the way to the La Center 30.

But with eight seconds left, the Knights were called for intentional grounding after spiking the ball from the shotgun. Those five yards proved critical after an incompletion forced them into the last-ditch field goal try for the win.

“It was an amazing comeback,” first-year KWC coach Colby Davies said. “It was good to see our team compete. We’ll learn from this.”

For two teams that came into Friday night averaging a combined 84 points per game, it took both offenses awhile to get on track.

La Center’s did first. Quarterback Jeremy Scott’s 30-yard touchdown run with 9:42 left in the half gave the Wildcats the lead, and Judd added TD runs of 14 and 18 yards to put them up 20-3 at halftime.

“A little bit of it was us getting used to their blitzes,” Judd said. “They were hitting the gaps really hard, and we couldn’t really do anything about it at first. But our linemen started getting their calls down, and from there, it was something pretty.”

The Knights’ passing attack then revved up in the third quarter. Nabors was 6-of-6 on their opening drive of the half, hitting Matt Garrison on a 16-yard touchdown pass to close the gap.

After forcing a three-and-out, KWC needed only four plays to score again on a 2-yard Taj Muhammad run.

“We were just off in the first half,” Daines said. “Our offense wasn’t clicking. But we made some adjustments at halftime and didn’t let them force our hands with our play calling.”

Judd’s third touchdown, a 10-yard run late in the third, restored a two-score lead for LC, but the Wildcats answered with another Nabors-to-Garrison connection, this one a 9-yard fade to the back-left corner of the end zone with 5:03 left.

Nabors finished 24-of-39 passing for 252 yards, including a game-high seven completions to Stell for 48 yards.

Jeffrey Mayolo ran for a game-high 129 yards on 23 carries for the Wildcats, while linebacker Issac Johnson had a game-high eight tackles.

LA CENTER 26, KING’S WAY CHRISTIAN 24

King’s Way 3 0 14 7—24

La Center 0 20 6 0—26

First Quarter

KWC—Austin Lauser 20 FG

Second Quarter

LC—Jeremy Scott 30 run (Sean Fox kick)

LC—Brett Judd 14 run (Fox kick)

LC—Judd 18 run (kick blocked)

Third Quarter

KWC—Matt Garrison 16 pass from Liam Nabors (kick blocked)

KWC—Taj Muhammad 2 run (Nic Pulicella pass from Nabors)

LC—Judd 10 run (kick blocked)

Fourth Quarter

KWC—Ma.Garrison 9 pass from Nabors (Lauser kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING—KWC, Jonathan Stell 16-42, Nabors 3-(minus 6), Muhammad 2-2. LC, Jeffrey Mayolo 23-129, Judd 10-92, Scott 6-32, Thomas Dreyer 3-10, Evan Honore 1-3.

PASSING—KWC, Nabors 24-39-0-252. LC, Scott 3-6-0-25.

RECEIVING—KWC, Stell 7-48, Ma.Garrison 5-52, Michael Garrison 4-49, Pulicella 3-49, Skyler Freeman 3-37, Luke Hoffman 2-17. LC, Jake Wise 1-13, Tanner Dreyer 1-6, Honore 1-6.