‘I love this team.’ Emotional end for Mariposa in NorCal championship game
Mariposa senior Logan Donati was trying to do everything he could to get the ball past the first-down marker. The Grizzlies running back came up about 2 yards short on fourth down near the Lincoln-San Francisco sideline with under a minute left in the game.
It was Mariposa’s last chance in a wild Northern California Regional Division 7-AA high school football championship at Veterans Stadium in Merced on Friday night.
Lincoln took over on downs at its own 23-yard line. The Mustangs were able to run out the clock in victory formation to continue their quest for a second straight state championship with a 21-14 win over Mariposa (8-5).
It’s a game Donati will never forget.
The 5-foot-7, 158-pound senior was a workhorse, carrying the ball 27 times for 123 yards and a touchdown. He also caught five passes for 100 yards.
“I wish we could have gone further,” Donati said. “I love this team. This was probably one of my best games, except for the fumbles. I could have done better with the fumbles.”
The turnovers were critical with all three fumbles coming in the second half, including one inside the LIncoln 5-yard line that prevented the Grizzlies from taking a two-score lead in the third quarter.
Mariposa turned the ball over four times in all against the Mustangs. Add the costly penalties and it was just too many mistakes to overcome against a Lincoln team that has lost just one time in 25 games over the last two years.
“The one at the goal line really killed us,” said Mariposa coach Robert Stitt. “The turnovers were a big difference in the game.”
One of the few mistakes for the Grizzlies in the first half was allowing Lincoln’s James Walsh to get behind the defense for a 67-yard touchdown pass from Jonah Francovich that gave the Mustangs (11-1) a 6-0 lead in the second quarter.
The Grizzlies controlled the first half, running 42 plays to just 15 for Lincoln.
Donati scored on a 2-yard run to give Mariposa a 7-6 lead with 46 seconds left in the second quarter.
A botched exchange between Francovich and running back Luis Contreras led to a Lincoln fumble in the third quarter that was recovered by Mariposa senior Jake Swift at the Mustangs’ 35-yard line.
Wyatt Green connected with tight end J.C. Davies on a 26-yard pass to move the ball inside the Lincoln 10-yard line. However, on the next play Contreras stripped the ball from Donati and Walsh recovered the ball for the Mustangs at their own 3-yard line.
Contreras came into the game with over 2,000 yards rushing on the season, but Mariposa’s defense bottled him up in the first half.
The Mustangs star got going after halftime, racking up 167 of his 214 rushing yards in the second half. Contreras scored on touchdown runs of 27 and 21 yards to give the Mustangs a 21-7 lead with 8:24 left in the game.
Green led the Grizzlies on a scoring drive, connecting with Johnathan Chapman on a 10-yard touchdown pass to pull Mariposa within 21-14 with 6:20 left.
Green completed 17 of 28 passes for 227 yards.
The Grizzlies just couldn’t get the fourth-down conversion on their final drive.
The Mustangs will face Gardena in the Division 7-AA state championship bowl next week.
Mariposa, which won its first section championship since 1995, saw its postseason run come to an end.
“A lot of our seniors have been on this team for three years,” Green said. “It means a lot to, not be their leader, but to just take part of this team. This is probably the best football team I’ve played on.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 12:16 AM.
