When The Cathedral Catholic Dons matched up against the Falcons from Torrey Pines High School last season, it turned out to be a battle of two of the stingiest defenses in San Diego with the Dons falling to their Del Mar Heights Road neighbors 10-0. This year’s game was once again a battle of two very good defensive teams, but the Dons came away with the victory this year 13-7 in a game that went down to the final play of regulation.

The Dons started this game right where they left off last week against Steele Canyon, scoring early with a short yardage run from junior running back Tony Johnson and making it a quick 7-0 game.

The Falcons came back in their next drive, starting from their own twenty yard line, and drove all the way down to the Cathedral five yard line where the Dons defense stood tall, making a big tackle on the goal line and forcing a fumble that was recovered by senior defensive back Patrick Downing, who had two interceptions in last weeks victory.

After a Dons punt, The Falcons had yet another long drive but this time pounded it into the end zone off of a great run reversal that seemed to fool the Cathedral defensive unit, making it a tie game at 7 going into halftime.

A reason for this game being so much more competitive than last week’s could be the Dons struggle in putting pressure on the Falcons’ quarterback. One of the high points of last week’s game was the Dons ability to get after the passer and force him to make a mistake; the Dons had four interceptions in last week’s contest but had none against Torrey Pines.

Early in the second half, senior offensive linemen Brian McCardle could not get himself up off of the ground and was quickly attended to by the training staff. He was seen limping off of the field on his own but in obvious pain. He was later seen getting his knee taped up on the sideline, and he did not return to the field. The Dons ended that drive with points, however, in the form of a field goal, making it 10-7 Dons going into the fourth and final quarter.

Halfway through the final twelve minutes of play, the Dons again found themselves in field goal range and again put three more points on the board to make it a 13-7 game going into the final five minutes.

On what would be the Dons final offensive drive, junior quarterback Garrett Bogart drove his offense into Falcon territory. On a long third down, Bogart had five receivers out wide and found senior wide receiver Trevor Deddeh for a long pass down the sideline for a first down. The Dons failed to put the ball in the end zone, but appeared to be in field goal range.

With just about three minutes left to go, and an all but game-sealing field goal about to be attempted, the pressure of the moment was too much for the snapper, and the ball went wide of the holder, not only giving the Falcons an opportunity to win the game with a touchdown and extra point, but also rolling the ball into great field position for the Falcons.

With now just over two minutes to play, the Dons defense took the field. They held strong, keeping the Falcons out of the red zone for the first handful of plays with the help of a key sack on second down from senior defensive linemen Casey Palid, who was pivotal to the Dons pass rush last week as well. The Falcons would, however get another first down.

The Falcons appeared to have a problem with time management, taking two of their three timeouts before the two minute mark. This would come back to haunt them when, after a couple of great defensive plays near their own goal line, the Dons kept the Falcons both in bounds and out of the end zone to keep the clock ticking in their favor.

On fourth down, the Falcons hurried to the line of scrimmage with time about to expire for one last play. The Dons came up with yet another big defensive play with senior Lucas Zender bringing down the Falcon’s quarterback for a game-ending sack.The Dons gained a final victory of 13-7.

The Falcons move to 1-1 and hope to rebound next week against Olympian. The Cathedral Catholic Dons move to 2-0 and hope to keep this momentum next week against a tough opponent, Helix at Helix High School. They are 1-1 and coming off a dominating 42-7 victory at Vista.