The562’s coverage of football in 2024-25 is sponsored by The Terry Donahue Memorial California Showcase.
The562’s coverage of St. Anthony athletics is sponsored by Jane & B.I. Mais, Class of 1948.
“It was Long Beach football. Not everybody can play Long Beach football.”
Those were the words of St. Anthony junior Jeremiah Taufi after willing St. Anthony to victory in their CIF-SS Division 10 semifinal against Pacifica on Friday night at Clark Field.
In a back-and-forth battle with both teams leaving it all on the field, the Saints were able to gut out a 17-14 victory, surviving a late drive from the Mariners who thought they’d won the game in the closing seconds.
“An absolute grind from the beginning of the game. They made us work for absolutely everything, and we knew it was gonna be a battle,” said St. Anthony head coach Jeff Magdaleno after the win. “I knew it was gonna come down to the end, and there’s nothing better than having our defense on the field to do that. They’ve been our rock all season.”
The Saints’ defense was opportunistic throughout the night, collecting five takeaways including four interceptions in the first half. Defensive end Logan Aranda had two of those interceptions, Taufi had another, and Marco Camacho had a pick to halt Pacifica’s final drive of the first half, keeping the Saints on top 10-7 at the break.
An interception ended up biting the Saints in the third quarter as Jakob Davis picked off a Saints pass along the visiting sideline, racing 65 yards for the go-ahead score. That made it 14-10 Mariners early in the second half, but they could not score again.
Offense didn’t come easy for St. Anthony on Friday night, either, as the Saints put up just 67 yards through the air, and star running back Jasiah Lolesio-Pua was bottled up for only 57 yards on 17 carries.
But on a key third quarter drive, the Saints were able to string together a series of short passes, as sophomore QB Aidan Jones completed four of his first five passes to three different receivers, setting up the biggest offensive play of the night for St. Anthony.
Taufi took a handoff on 1st & 15 and rammed his way through half the Pacifica defense, shrugging off tacklers on his way to the endzone for what proved to be the game-winning score. Taufi had 77 rushing yards on just eight carries, but none bigger than his TD to put the Saints up 17-14 with 1:25 to play in the third quarter.
“I had to make a big play, you know, I had a lot of weight on me but I’m used to that. I like that because I feel like that’s when I play my best,” said Taufi of his huge run. “I just saw the green, and I knew nobody was tackling me one-on-one. If you do, then you must be in the gym. When they started coming one-by-one, that’s what I wanted. I’ve been in the weight room with coach Gregg (Washington), and we really play ball over here in the weight room.”
Thanks to Taufi’s run, the Saints were in a position to lean on their defense to pull out the win. After forcing a three-and-out on the ensuing Pacifica drive, the Mariners lost a fumble at midfield where Kaiden Grant fell on it for the Saints’ fifth takeaway of the night.
The St. Anthony offense was unable to bleed much of the clock, however, giving Pacifica one final drive with 2:44 left to play and two timeouts to work with. Starting at their own 33, the Mariners got the intermediate pass game going with QB James Anema marching his offense down to the Saints’ 32 with just 34 seconds left to play.
That’s when a wild sequence of events dictated the dramatic conclusion to the game, starting with Pacifica’s controversial fourth-down conversion. Up against a 4th & 10, Anema completed a pass to Ethan McLaughlin, who was immediately hit and stopped at the St. Anthony 23-yard-line, a yard short of the line to gain. However, the ball was incorrectly placed at the 22, and the subsequent measurement gave Pacifica a first down to keep their hopes alive. Video replay from multiple angles confirmed that McLaughlin was short, but the drive continued.
Two plays later, the Mariners thought they’d won the game as Armando Torres went up for an unbelievable leaping grab in the end zone over a St. Anthony defender. Both players appeared to have possession of the ball on the ground, and in that situation the touchdown was correctly awarded, setting off a ferocious celebration from the traveling contingent of Mariners fans with only seven seconds on the clock.
But that celebration proved to be premature, as the referees got together immediately following the play and a flag was thrown.
“I saw (the officials) huddle up, and I had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t see that side of the field,” said Magdaleno of the crucial play. “The guys in the box were yelling (on the headset) that he might have gone out of bounds. Oh my gosh, it just … it’s just meant to be, I guess.”
Again, video replay confirmed that Torres did in fact step both feet out of bounds on his way to the end zone, and was the first player to touch the ball in the air. The referees called illegal touching, which took the TD off the board and moved the Mariners back with just seven seconds to go.
From that point, the Saints’ defense was able to hold, making it through a wild roller coaster of emotions to hang on for the three-point win. St. Anthony players and coaches rushed the field in celebration after the final play, but it won’t be their last time playing at the St. Anthony Athletics Complex this season. The Saints will be hosting Silverado next weekend for the championship.
“The championship feeling is just unimaginable. You’ve got to be here to feel it,” said Tuafi. “Not everybody gets this chance in their lifetime, it’s just an unimaginable experience … This game was all about execution, and we struggled a little bit with it, but it came down to who really wanted it more. Who was the greediest? And I believe we were.”
Pacifica opened the scoring with a big play in the first quarter as Anema hit David Carlsson for a 53-yard catch-and-run TD to give the visitors a 7-0 lead, but the Saints would respond to tie things up after Taufi’s interception gave them the ball just outside the red zone.
After six consecutive runs from Lolesio-Pua, the Saints faced 4th & goal at the Mariners one, and decided to go for it. On a toss play to Preston Hochman, the junior running back raced around the left edge and inside the pylon for the tying score early in the second quarter.
The Saints took their first lead of the night on a 35-yard field goal by Christian Martin, which was set up by one of Aranda’s interceptions.
After an 0-4 start in Magdaleno’s first year as head coach, it wouldn’t have been easy to picture St. Anthony in this position, one win away from a CIF title. But Magdaleno has been optimistic about his team throughout the season as they kept their focus and improved each week.
The Saints have now won eight of their last nine games to sit 8-5 overall, and are in the D10 title game for the second time in four years.
“It’s these kids, man, it’s these kids and this coaching staff. They make it easy,” Magdaleno said. “I told them a couple weeks ago, I feel like it’s week three, like, I’m not ready for this to be over. I just feel like we have so much left, we have so much energy and so much momentum, and we just want to keep riding that wave.”
The CIF-SS Division 10 title game will be played either Friday or Saturday next week, based on the CIF’s forthcoming schedule of games. Stay tuned to The562 for an announcement on the date of the game and, of course, full coverage of the championship.
