Patterson grabs inside track to WAC crown

With looks of disbelief still firmly etched on their faces, Los Banos football coach Dustin Caropreso gathered his squad around and tried to offer perspective.

“Sometimes getting handed a big piece of humble pie can be a good thing,” Caropreso told his team on the heels of a 34-6 loss to Patterson on Friday night. “It reminds us that we can’t take anything for granted. That we have to come everyday prepared to work.”

With three regular-season games remaining on the schedule and what Caropreso hopes will be a deep playoff run, the LB coach tried to convey that the Tigers still have plenty of meaningful football ahead this season. They just won’t likely be defending their Western Athletic Conference title.

“We lost to a good football team tonight,” Caropreso said. “Patterson came ready to play and executed pretty well on both sides of the ball. I tried to convince the kids that there’s no shame in losing to them. This game was billed as the unofficial WAC championship. A good team was always going to lose.

“We have three games left. We win them all and we’re 8-2 and should have a good seed for the playoffs.”

From the opening kickoff the signs were there that it wouldn’t be LB’s night.

An attempted pooch kick caught a little too much air and was pushed backward by a strong breeze, handing Patterson (7-0, 3-0 WAC) the ball at the Los Banos 38-yard line.

The Los Banos defense sidestepped the short field, holding Patterson to a missed field goal. It would be LB’s only stop of the opening half.

Patterson’s triple-option look and quick tempo had LB (5-2, 2-1 WAC) out of sorts. Patterson racked up 246 yards of total offense to go along with 13 first downs in the opening half. LB just couldn’t get the Tigers off of the field when it had the chance, as Patterson converted six of nine third-down tries and went 2 for 2 on fourth-down conversions.

It helped set up touchdown runs by Michael Lawson (13 yards), Jamal Broussard (one yard) and quarterback Kevin Todd (five yards) as Patterson raced out to a 21-0 lead.

“They did a great job pounding the ball,” said linebacker Anthony Machado, who led the team with 13 tackles, two sacks and a fumble recovery. “They just kept working sweeps to the left side. We didn’t come out hard enough and they took it to us.”

The back breaker came just before the half.

Los Banos pieced together its first sustained drive of the game, marching down to the Patterson 6-yard line. The drive stalled there, however, and LB turned the ball over on downs at the Patterson 13 with 1:47 left in the half.

It was enough time for Rob Cozart’s team.

Patterson took to the air, going 87 yards in 10 plays. Todd (12 of 20, 198 yards) connected with Pierre Williams (six catches, 100 yards) for a 21-yard touchdown pass with 9.4 seconds left in the half to make it 28-0 Patterson at the break.

“That was huge at the end of the half,” Caropreso said. “We score and go in down 21-7, who knows what happens. Instead, we turn it over and let them drive the length of the field in less than two minutes.”

The vaunted LB offense never found a rhythm after the break either. Patterson did a good job limiting Los Banos quarterback Adam Herrera (18 carries, 105 yards, 5 of 13 passing, 93 yards) from making the big play. Daniel Fernandez (15 rushes, 95 yards) got consistent yards running up the middle, but LB couldn’t maintain drives.

Los Banos finally broke through in the third quarter when Herrera hit David Walker for a 45-yard touchdown reception, but that would be it for the LB offense.

Patterson put the game out of reach on the next drive as Lawson scored his second touchdown run of the night.

This story was originally published October 16, 2015 at 11:42 PM with the headline "Patterson grabs inside track to WAC crown."