The Friday night lights shined last week as Carlsbad took on the El Camino Wildcats, beating the team 42-24 in a pre-Halloween match. Other than simply improving their record, Friday was also an emotional win for the Lancers as they went undefeated in league thus clenching the league title.

“We were just a little bit nervous knowing we had to come out with a W to get the league title,” senior Josiah Villagomez said.

Lancer defense came ready to play, right off of El Camino’s first throw of the game senior Kellen Peet intercepted the ball putting the Lancers in the red zone. Two plays later, senior Josiah Villagomez ran the ball in for a touchdown making the score 7 – 0 with nine minutes remaining in the first quarter.

“After the interception, I was really stoked to put my team in the position to score early in the game,” senior Kellen Peet said.

On El Camino’s second drive of the first quarter they steadily moved down the field pushing farther and farther until the Lancer defense stopped them. With the Lancer offense being so resilient, not even two plays later, senior Layth Haddad ran the ball for a thirty-yard carry. 

The game seemed to be at a stalemate in the second quarter until senior Layth Haddad got a touchdown for the Lancers after another spectacular thirty-yard run. Bringing the score up to 14 – 0 with nine minutes left in the second quarter. Wildcats got possession and this time they get a field goal to put them on the board, making it 14 – 3.

El Camino didn’t have much time on the clock but they got into position to score with about a minute left in the first half. Wildcats scored with 50 seconds left making it 14 – 10. Lancers received the ball with very little time left and they felt the pressure from the Wildcats. Carlsbad knew they needed to score before the end of the first half to keep the momentum going into the second half. Lancers fought against the clock, and against all odds they made it to the 20-yard-line with 15 seconds to spare with Matt Spiering scoring a touchdown bringing the core to 21-10 Lancers.

“Super confident going into second half, but knew we couldn’t take our foot off the gas pedal, because anything could happen,” senior Josiah Villagomez said.

The Lancers began to assert their offensive dominance in the second half by scoring two unanswered touchdowns making the score 35 – 10 until the Wildcats finally scored bringing the score to 35 – 17 at the end of the third quarter. Right after the third quarter ended there were some shenanigans from three El Camino fans involving speedos and luchador masks. After all the excitement, the two teams were ready to get down to business.

On El Camino’s second possession of the fourth quarter, senior Troy Cassidy picked off the ball and ran it in for a touchdown, making the score 42 – 17. On El Camino’s next drive, Cassidy intercepted the ball again giving the Lancers possession. The Wildcats had one last push in them, and they got a touchdown with four minutes remaining in the game, making it 42 – 24. This was the final score of the game, finishing out an undefeated league season for Lancers.

“It was a great moment knowing we won all of our league games going into the last game of the season,” senior Josiah Villagomez said.