Big plays, turnovers cost Livingston football

Damarrio Hammonds caught the ball 2 yards beyond the line of scrimmage and turned up field.

The Patterson receiver made a defensive back miss and turned on the jets along the sideline for a 75-yard touchdown reception.

It wasn’t an isolated incident for the Livingston defense. Every time a Tiger playmaker was allowed into open space he seemed to make the Wolves pay in a 42-13 Patterson victory Friday night.

It wasn’t the showing Livingston expected after taking Los Banos to overtime last week. The Wolves (5-5, 2-4 Western Athletic Conference) needed the victory to ensure themselves a playoff spot. Now, they’ll have to wait to see how the final week of the season plays out to know if 5-5 is good enough to get in.

“We came out with the mentality that tonight was all or nothing,” Wolves quarterback CJ Avila said. “We left it all out there, but made too many mistakes.

“Sometimes you try a little too hard in these kinds of games, and I think that cost us a few times.”

There were times that appeared to be the case.

The Wolves turned the ball over four times, but on a rainy night were guilty of putting the ball on the ground seven times. Two turnovers came on late strips while guys were fighting for extra yards.

That, coupled with Patterson’s big plays, left the Wolves playing catch-up from the beginning.

Livingston was robbed of a Jorge Torres interception return for a touchdown on Patterson’s opening series when an inadvertent whistle rendered the play dead. That allowed Hammonds to open the scoring with his long touchdown catch.

Avila (245 total yards) answered with a 27-yard touchdown pass to Michael Gutierrez, but the Wolves could never get ahead.

On a similar play, Hammonds broke free for 62-yard touchdown catch on Patterson’s next series. Tigers quarterback Damien Paulo sandwiched two touchdown passes to Alec Espos around an Eddie Avila touchdown run on Patterson’s next two possessions to send them into intermission up 28-13.

Michael Lawson essentially put the game away with two spectacular plays to open the third quarter.

Livingston opted for a low drive on the second-half kickoff, but the ball skipped off the wet turf and made it to Lawson at the 20-yard line. He broke for the right sideline, slipped a trio of tackles and returned the ball 80 yards for a back-breaking score.

The two-way player put the finishing touches on the game during Livingston’s ensuing series. After a long scramble, Avila spotted an open Gutierrez in the back of the end zone. Lawson, who lost track of Gutierrez on the play, showed his recovery speed and made a spectacular one-handed interception while falling backward.

“This definitely isn’t how we saw this game going down,” Livingston coach Alex Gonzalez said. “You’re going to have a bad game every now and then, though.

“We made a few mistakes early that they turned into big plays, then we could never really get any momentum going because of the turnovers.

“I’m proud of the effort from this team this year. If this is it, it’s a shame it had to end like this.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2014 at 11:28 PM with the headline "Big plays, turnovers cost Livingston football."