After battling through a difficult schedule and obtaining the Avocado West League title, the Carlsbad football team looked forward to CIFs as the number five seed in the Open Divison. The Lancers went on the road for their first CIF playoff game at Cathedral Catholic on Nov. 20.

As the game began, spectators noticed it would be a defensive game on both sides.

“We knew we had a big job to take care of on the defensive side,” senior Danny Wood said.

First drive for Cathedral and the Lancers force them to a punt. The game went back and forth until the Lancers tried to get the 4th down conversion. Giving Cathedral a major scoring opportunity, the Dons took that opportunity to score first, making it 7-0 Cathedral.

“We stuck with our plays and executed them to the best of our ability,” senior Troy Cassidy said.

Lancer’s quarterback Shea Morales threw a 20 yard pass to Cassidy who ran it down 40 more yards to put the Lancers in scoring territory on the five yard line. Cassidy then scored the first touchdown for the Lancers making the score 6-7 Cathedral still up by one.

“We had missed opportunities in the first half that we needed to capitalize on in the second,” senior Collin Riccitelli said.

Following a successful defensive run, senior Kellen Peet caught a 40 yard pass from Shea Morales with 2 minutes left in the second quarter. The Lancers got stopped and Riccitelli came out on to the field to attempt a 54 yard field goal, but hit the uprights. Cathedral got the ball back with less than a minute and a half left and they marched down the field to score another touchdown, leaving the first half to end 6-14 Cathedral.

“We just came up a little bit short,” Wood said.

The majority of the third quarter was defensively dominant on both teams. However, with five minutes left, senior KJ Macdonald ran in the second touchdown of the night for the Lancers making it 13-14, Cathedral still up by one. The Dons ended the third quarter with a second field goal attempt that missed.

“We didn’t come out on top, but we still did pretty good,” Cassidy said.

In the fourth quarter, Matt Spiering’s 18 yard touchdown catch and two point conversion put the Lancers in the lead 21-14, with 6:15 left. With three minutes left in the game, the Dons fumbled but quickly won back possession after the Lancers fumbled. Only two minutes left on the clock and Cathedral scored to tie it up making the score 21-21. With the game coming down to the wire, Lancers were forced to punt. However, the Dons quickly came within field goal region making the finishing score 21-24 Cathedral.

“We left it all out on the field,” Wood said.