St. Francis, Serra meet again
St. Francis overpowered Serra 44-21 on Nov. 6, capping its effort with a 15-play, 89-yard drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown run by Viliami Teu with 55 seconds remaining.
All of the plays on that drive were runs, including 14 by Teu as part of his 45-carry, 344-yard, two-touchdown effort that helped the Lancers complete an unbeaten regular season and earn the West Catholic Athletic League championship in a matchup of undefeated teams.
The teams meet again at 7 p.m. Friday at Westmont-Campbell with even higher stakes: a Central Coast Section Division 1 title and state playoff regional berth. The loser’s season ends.
If St. Francis (11-0) prevails, it almost assuredly would be picked as the representative for Northern California in the Open Division championship game, meaning it would skip the regionals because it would be deemed the top team overall in the Northern half of the state. If Serra (10-1) wins, it will play in a Division 1 or 2 regional bowl game, with the matchup to be announced Sunday.
Clearly, Serra’s greater focus is turning around the previous meeting with its WCAL rival. Besides being admittedly outplayed — the Lancers outgained Serra 530-275 — the Padres didn’t
appreciate the exclamation point at the end. A knee in the final minute was another option.
“Bottom line is we need to play better — much better,” Serra coach Patrick Walsh said.
The Padres are led offensively by dual-threat quarterback Dominique Lampkin and 1,000-yard rusher Petelo Gi. With 2,141 rushing yards, Teu is closing in on St. Francis’ school record of 2,295 yards set in 15 games by Darrell Page in 2017. Teu already has set the school mark with 28 TDs.
Camilo Arquette carried 18 times for 117 yards and three touchdowns in St. Francis’ 49-28 CCS win over Menlo-Atherton last week and quarterback Josh Perry (916 passing yards, 10 touchdowns) continues to improve. Add in the team’s dominating
offensive line and the Lancers have been unbeatable, having even ended De La Salle-Concord’s 318-game unbeaten streak against Northern California teams with a 31-28 win Sept. 10.
But until this month, playofftitle-game success had been elusive for the Lancers in recent seasons. Though the Lancers are the section’s winningest program with 16 titles, they’ve also lost 12 CCS championship games, including in 2018, 2017 and 2015. Their last CCS title was in 2014.
Meanwhile, Serra is 6-0 in CCS championship game play, with recent crowns in 2016, 2017 and 2019.