Bishop Amat football, without its coach, beats Sierra Canyon in double overtime
Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now.
CHATSWORTH — The Sierra Canyon football team came into its Mission League debut with a clean-slate approach. A chance to start a new league campaign with a win. Bishop Amat welcomed the Trailblazers to their new league with a proverbial smile and served up a nice dish of defeat to spoil Sierra Canyon’s homecoming Friday night.
Despite missing head coach Steve Hagerty and senior running back Aiden Ramos, Bishop Amat overcame three different 14-point deficits to beat Sierra Canyon 31-28 in double overtime thanks to a 34-yard game-winning field goal from Isaac Ochoa.
“All I was thinking about was doing it for my team,” Ochoa said. “When I saw the ball go through the uprights, I just felt immediate relief.”
Bishop Amat overcomes a 14-point deficit three different times to knock off Sierra Canyon 31-28 in double OT. Isaac Ochoa hits the 34-yarder to win the game. What a way to start the Mission League. Un. Real. Game. pic.twitter.com/w7Oz20WLSu
— Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) October 1, 2022
Bishop Amat failed to score from the 1-yard line on fourth down in the first overtime, but Sierra Canyon missed the field goal on the ensuing possession that would have won the game. In the second overtime, Sierra Canyon missed another field goal, leaving Ochoa with the chance to be the hero.
“It felt great to come out and get this win,” Bishop Amat’s Delano Franklin said. “Especially on the road during Sierra Canyon’s homecoming. We showed out.”
Hagerty and Ramos were serving a suspension for their part in last week’s postgame altercation with Damien. Hagerty refused to shake hands with Damien head coach Matt Bechtel. And later that evening, Ramos filed an incident report with the La Verne police department alleging that a Damien coach assaulted him. The matter is still being investigated by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and the La Verne police department. Bechtel was placed on leave for Friday’s game at Upland pending the outcome of the investigations.
It makes Bishop Amat’s victory more impressive. On the road with leftover controversy from last week, no head coach, no senior running back. No problem.
“Tonight’s game says a lot about our character,” Franklin said.
The Trailblazers took a quick 14-0 lead highlighted by a two-play possession that started with a 35-yard run from Dane Dunn and was capped off by a 33-yard touchdown connection from Damon Wrighster to Lavon Brown.
”We definitely made mistakes in the second half,” Sierra Canyon coach Jon Ellinghouse said. “But I thought we played good football on both sides of the ball tonight. We lost to a very good team.”
Bishop Amat (5-1, 1-0 Mission) countered with a touchdown run from Richie Munoz to start the second quarter to make it 14-7, but a double-pass from Sierra Canyon that finished in the hands of Dunn gave the Trailblazers a 21-7 lead and an eventual 28-14 lead at halftime.
Double pass. Alonzo Esparza to Jojo Phillips to Dane Dunn for the TD. Sierra Canyon takes a 21-7 lead over Bishop Amat with 6:34 left in the 2Q. Trailblazers have scored on their first three possessions. pic.twitter.com/mJ8oenKbco
— Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) October 1, 2022
The Lancers scored 14 unanswered points in the second half. A pick-six from Brandyn Wetherspoon cut Sierra Canyon’s lead to 28-21 before a 38-yard connection from Frankie Villalbazo to Delano Franklin tied the game at 28-28 with 5:34 left in the game.
Sierra Canyon (2-4, 0-1) missed a game-winning field goal from 42 yards with 52 seconds left in regulation before Bishop Amat fumbled the ball on the ensuing possession to force overtime.
“I told my team I was proud of them,” said Ellinghouse of what he said to his team after the dramatic loss. “We improved. We’re getting there.“
The loss moves Sierra Canyon to 2-4, and marked the team’s first league loss since 2017, and just second league loss since 2014 after dominating the Gold Coast League for many years.
Welcome to the Mission League.