LOS BANOS -- With 0.9 seconds left in the game and Central Catholic two yards away from a game-tying score, Los Banos coach Dennis Stubbs let the home crowd be his eyes.
The Raiders' attempt to run a toss-sweep to the right side ended in an errant pitch and a mad scramble at the 10 as time expired. Stubbs knew his team had held on for a 35-28 victory simply from the reaction of the Tigers' fans.
"I would have thrown it there, but maybe that was a toss-pass," Stubbs said. "I don't know because I didn't watch. You know, we should have been able to come up with a couple stops there in that last drive."
Central Catholic, 3-2 overall after the loss in the wild Western Athletic Conference opener, had moved from its own 20 to the 2 in the final 1 minute, 58 seconds, behind the passing of Chris Sauls.
Los Banos had two passes in its hands during the drive, but somehow Sauls kept his team moving, converting fourth-down passes of 16 and 23 yards to keep the chains moving.
A 19-yard pass to Chris Lein put the ball inside the 10, and a quick toss to tight end John Mundt moved the ball to the 2, where a quick spike left less than a second.
Central Catholic, with four running backs averaging better than six yards per carry this season, had been held to 158 yards by the Tigers. Sauls made up for it with his 281 passing yards, but Raiders' coach Roger Canepa went back to the ground for the final play.
"It was a Power-I toss, and we just put it in," Canepa said. "Something just happened, and we hadn't worked on it a lot, but we really didn't have a great running play to go to in that situation."
The toss never got to the running back, and Los Banos celebrated its second straight victory over Central Catholic.
While the final play put the game in the win column for the Tigers, the difference between the teams was the superiority of Los Banos's special teams. Delonte Moore broke a 21-21 tie midway through the third quarter with a 95-yard kickoff return.
Then, after Los Banos forced a three-and-out, the Tigers got a hand on the ensuing punt, taking over at midfield.
Eight plays later, Los Banos quarterback Chris Corpuz found Tommy Wright in the end zone from 26 yards out, with Wright making a left-handed catch while falling backward for a 35-21 lead. Corpuz was very efficient, completing 9 of 14 passes for 141 yards.
Los Banos helped Central get back in the game with a fumble at its own 30 with 5:41 remaining, and the Raiders scored on the next play with a pass from Sauls to Craig Jones.
The Tigers had one more chance to ice the win, but Derek Neves, who was perfect on his five conversion kicks, pulled a 28-yard field goal attempt wide left, giving Central one final 80-yard chance.
They only got 78.
"We take a lot of pride in our special teams and we spend a lot of time on them," Stubbs said "I said in our pregame that I had a funny feeling about special teams being the difference. And they were."
Bee staff writer Brian VanderBeek can be reached at bvanderbeek@modbee.com or (209) 578-2150. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/modestobeek.
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