St. John Bosco’s playoff hopes got a little dimmer Friday night after a 35-6 loss to Mater Dei.  The Braves started the season 6 and 0, including a win over division rival Santa Margarita, but since has lost 2 of their last 3.   They now have a showdown with Servite looming for 3^rd place in the Trinity league, and the last automatic bid into the CIF Playoffs.  But for them to have any chance to beat Servite and make any noise in the playoffs, they are going to have to play better than they did against the Monarchs.

The Braves built their fast start to the season on fast starts to each game, but on Friday night Bosco could not have had a worse first quarter.  After starting on their own 34, Mater Dei went 66 yards in 6 plays for a touchdown.  On the ensuing kickoff, Bosco fumbled and the Monarchs recovered at Bosco’s 20.  Bosco’s Leon McFadden made a great play in the end zone to pick off Mater Dei QB Matt Barkley, but it was only delaying the inevitable.  Bosco went 3 and out, Mater Dei with great field position needed only 4 plays to score again, going up 14-0.  Special teams mistakes would hurt the Braves all night, and on the next kickoff they fumbled again.  It took Mater Dei only 1 play to make it 21-0.  Amazingly enough though, they would still have a chance to come back and make it a game.

There were very few bright spots for Bosco, but one of them has to be the play of Will Shamburger.  On the next drive he had 3 catches- and 8 catches for 107 yards on the night, but despite a first and goal from the 2 Bosco could not punch it in.  Even though they were down 21-0 and Mater Dei’s offense was looking very good, Braves coach Kiki Mendoza elected to settle for a field goal, and it was blocked. 

In the 2^nd quarter, Bosco’s defense stepped up and held Mater Dei scoreless but the Braves’ offense couldn’t do anything either and the halftime score was 21-0. 

The Braves team that came out to start the 3^rd quarter needs to be bottled and sold to the highest bidder, because if the team had played like that for the whole game they could have very easily beaten Mater Dei.  It started with a few runs by the newest Brave, Alex Fletcher- who actually made more of an impact at linebacker than at running back.   A few more key plays by Will Shamburger got them into the red zone.  And they were finally able to cash it in, but again special teams had issues and the PAT was blocked; leaving them trailing 21-6 with about 8 minutes to go in the 3^rd.  The Braves onsided the ensuing kickoff and looked to have recovered cleanly but were flagged for illegal touching, giving the Monarchs good field position again.  On the first play, Bosco put 10 men in the box leaving Will Shamburger on an island.  Barkley noticed the single-coverage on the outside and audibled to a pass, but Shamburger was more than ready and picked it off.  At this moment, with the ball, down by only 2 scores, and with all the momentum, Bosco looked like they could actually live up to their potential.  Then it all fell apart.

The ensuing drive would see the Braves get flagged multiple times, Keith Price get sacked multiple times, and would ultimately culminate in a Price interception on 4^th down and long.  Neither offense would do much for the remainder of the 3^rd and even the beginning of the 4^th quarter.  But in the 4^th, still down by 2 scores, the Braves moved the ball out to the 42.  A penalty and an incomplete pass left the Braves facing a 4 and 8 at their own 42 with 10 minutes to go.  Surely if the Braves were going to have any chance to come back from 2 scores down they would have had to go for it then.  Instead they punted.  Just as in the O Lutheran game, trailing late in the game and desperately needing to stop the run, Bosco just couldn’t do it.  Mater Dei ran it 9 times on an 11-play 55 yard drive that ate up much of the clock and put the game away at 28-6.  They would add a garbage touchdown to end the game 35-6.

Mater Dei (7-2, 4-0 in league) are playing on Thursday night against Orange Lutheran (7-2, 3-1 in league) for the Trinity League title.  Both have strong defenses, power running games, and QBs very capable of making big throws; this should be an exceptional game and were it not for Long Beach Poly this would probably be a Southern Section Finals preview.  Meanwhile on Friday Bosco (7-2, 2-2 in league) will take on Servite (6-3, 3-1 in league) for 3^rd place.  So the question becomes: which Braves team will show up?  The one that beat its pre-league opponents by an average score of 40-10, which is the same team that has won 2 league games by an average of 26.5 points; or will it be the one that has lost two league games by an average of 21?  Will it be the Keith Price-led offense that can score at will and the defense that gets key sacks and big turnovers; or will it be the offense that can’t hold on to the ball, and the defense that can’t stop the run?  Coach Mendoza and the St John Bosco Braves better figure it out and get it right, or a season that started spectacularly could end miserably this next Friday night.