Late field goal lifts Loyola football over St. Francis

LA CANADA  >> With six field goal attempts spread throughout the game, only one mattered.

The St. Francis and Loyola football teams tested each other, but neither budged in a tightly contested Angelus League showdown at St. Francis on Friday.

With just seconds left in the game, the Cubs set up kicker Mark Hyan with a 22-yard field goal try to ice the game.

After his first attempt of the night was swatted away earlier, his last kick was good enough to lift Loyola to a 6-3 win over St. Francis to earn at least a share of the Angelus League title.

“It was just stingy,” Loyola coach Drew Casani. “It was hard to get down the field and into the end zone. I give a lot of credit to (St. Francis).”

Hyan’s first field goal attempt came at the end of the first half.

His 39-yard try was blocked by the Golden Knights, who shut out the Cubs (7-2 overall, 2-0 league) through two quarters.

“In the end, you never know (what could happen),” Hyan said. “You could come out here for a hard-fought game and it could go either way.”

Loyola’s final possession came after Golden Knights kicker Clint Geryak saw his 33-yard try bounce off the left upright with 6:02 in the fourth quarter.

The Cubs quickly marched down the field on the drive thanks to big runs by senior running back Tahj Owens, who racked up 115 yards on 16 carries.

On the same drive, quarterback Joe Tatum made a key fourth-down conversion when he found receiver Peter Vanis in St. Francis territory with less than five minutes remaining.

The Golden Knights (6-2, 1-1) had a number of opportunities in the first half, and it started after Geryak opened the scoring with a 25-yard field goal in the first quarter.

“We just didn’t finish drives,” St. Francis coach Dean Herrington said. “Give Loyola credit. They kept us out of the end zone. It was a tough one.”

St. Francis fell short of the end zone on its second drive of the first half, but Geryak’s 22-yard kick was blocked by a pair of Cubs linemen.

Golden Knights quarterback Jack Jacobs conducted the offense comfortably and finished with 120 yards passing on 10 of 13 tries.