No, it wasn’t Friday the 13th and no there was no full moon, but it was wild night this past Friday as the Lowry High School football team hosted Wooster in a Northern 3A match-up.
The teams combined for 25 points in the first five minutes of the contest and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were plentiful throughout the night, as Lowry pulled away for a 42-26 win over Wooster to improve to 3-0 on the season.
“It was just a crazy night,” said LHS coach Taua Cabatbat. “The kids came out and battled and played hard. We had a couple break downs on the night. It wasn’t the prettiest but we came out with the victory.”
The fast-paced action started with a Wooster fumble on the second play of the game and Lowry quickly answered as Joseph Vankuiken connected with Giovani Sapien on a 50-yard touchdown pass on the Buckaroos; first play from scrimmage.
The Buckaroos led 7-0, 30 seconds into the game, but that didn’t last long, as the Colts’ Jamain Wright brought Wooster within a point at 7-6, as he scored from 57 yards on the next play from scrimmage.
The Lowry defense had him stopped for a big loss in the backfield, but Wright broke free and shook his way through the Lowry defense for the score.
Lowry came right back with an 80-yard drive in less than four minutes. The drive saw Braden Hammargren score on a 1-yard with 7:29 left in the first quarter, but Lowry missed the extra point to lead 13-12.
One play later it was Wright again, breaking a number of Lowry tackles to score on a 53-yard run to close the gap to 13-12 with 7:12 to go in the first quarter.
After the quick start by both teams, the defense’s settled in for much of the first half, but tempers increased with a number of penalties on both sides.
Lowry punted the next three times it had the ball and Wooster looked poised to take its first lead, early in the second quarter. However, the Colts fumbled at the Buckaroos’ 2-yard line, as Ryan Arrien recovered the bad snap.
Moments later, Wooster did take the lead at 19-13, when Kayden Quartz intercepted Vankuiken and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown. That was the first time Lowry trailed this season.
The Buckaroos regrouped on their next drive and capped a 61-yard drive on a 6-yard run by Jessie Jeronimo.
Lowry added the 2-point conversion on a catch by Marcus Montes to lead 21-19. The Buckaroos did not trail the rest of the way.
After a halftime meeting at midfield between captains, coaches and officials, tempers calmed down in the second half, but the Lowry offense remained hot, scoring on its opening drive of the third quarter.
Jordan Bills took over at quarterback for an injured Vankuiken, who did not play in the second half.
Sapien had a 47-yard touchdown called back on a penalty but the Buckaroos would not be denied, as
Joesph Garcia finished off a 63-yard, seven-minute drive with a 15-yard touchdown run to make the score 29-19.
“Jordan came out in the second half and did some good things,” added the coach. “He has been getting reps in practice and he went in and got the job done for us.”
The Buckaroos had trouble putting the Colts away, as it was Christien Smith’s turn to break tackles and run all over the field for a 35-yard touchdown run and closing the Lowry lead to 29-26 with 2:54 left in the third quarter.
Lowry quickly came back with an 80-yard drive, started by a long run by Sapien. After two catches by Hammargren from Bills.
Lowry took a 35-26 lead with 32 seconds left in the third quarter after a 28-yard touchdown pass from Bills to Montes.
Lowry’s Troy Manske and Roberto Lopez-Vidal picked up interceptions late in the game, with the latter leading to the final score of the night, a 1-yard run by Garcia with 32 seconds left in the game.
Lowry’s home game with South Tahoe on Friday night has been postponed.
The Vikings will not play any athletics until Sept. 13 at the earliest. Much of South Lake Tahoe has been evacuated because of the Caldor Fire.
