When Zach Cuaresma’s 25-yard pass skipped off the fingertips of wide receiver Troy Perry Friday night, a look of disbelief swept across the Eastside Catholic sidelines.
Envisioning a repeat of the previous week’s come-from-behind victory against Mount Si, the realization hit — there weren’t going to be any more comebacks in the Crusaders’ “season of destiny.”
“We just ran out of a little bit of the magic that we’ve had all season long,” said EC head coach Bill Marsh, after falling 18-14 to Lakes in the 3A state quarterfinals.
Eastside Catholic received two possessions inside the game’s final 6 minutes — both directly into the face of a driving southerly wind. Starting at their own 36-yard line with 5:45 left, the Crusaders pushed the ball to the Lancers’ 31. The series was highlighted by a 27-yard pass from Cuaresma to Spencer Esau. Just two plays later, however, Cuaresma had the ball jarred loose on a scramble, and Lakes recovered it.
Eastside Catholic’s defense responded, forcing a Lakes punt with 1:46 left in the contest. The Crusaders received one more opportunity, starting at their own 37. They pushed the ball down to the Lancer 37 with 12 seconds left, and on fourth down, Cuaresma rolled to his left and fired the ball just out of the reach of an open Perry at the 12-yard line. The ball went over to Lakes on downs with 6 seconds left.
“It’s just one of those games where you hope you’d have a chance to win it at the end and we had a chance, and just couldn’t make it happen,” Marsh said.
Lakes broke a scoreless tie with 6:53 to go in the second quarter when quarterback Dalton Gervais scored from 1 yard out on a keeper. The Lancers had their first of two quick strikes just two minutes later. Running back Willis Wilson broke free on a dive up the middle for a 58-yard score and a 12-0 Lakes advantage.
Eastside Catholic inched closer before halftime, when senior Mike Bush dove across the goal line for a 1-yard score. EC got the ball back with 41 seconds left at midfield, but was unable to convert, leaving the score 12-7 at halftime.
The Crusaders took their first and last lead of the contest, 14-12, with 34 seconds to go in the third quarter after Marion Bactol broke free on a counter to the right side for a 38-yard TD.
Lakes answered with the go-ahead TD at the 9:31 mark of the fourth quarter when running back Teddy Cotton took a dive straight up the middle for an 83-yard TD.
“That took the wind out of our sails, but our kids just coming back,” Marsh said.
Cotton had 25 carries for 154 yards, and Wilson had 10 carries for 109 yards.
Eastside Catholic was led by Bactol’s 17 carries for 87 yards. Bush ended the contest with 11 carries for 16 yards, while Cuaresma was 5-for-15 passing for 100 yards.
The Crusaders ended their season with a 10-2 record, with their only other loss coming in week two to Arhbishop Murphy.
“You could hope for a lot of things to be different, but this year we came together as a family, (a) big brotherhood and stuff,” Bush said. “I guess right now I went out with no regrets. I think we all did that. We played hard to the last whistle, and that was our goal.”
