St. Joseph Shuts Down Bell, Harvard, 21-0

Even after he and his teammates were thoroughly stifled by rugged St. Joseph on Friday night in Santa Maria, Harvard High running back Andy Bell was not convinced that there is a better team in the Desert-Mountain Conference than the Saracens.

“Honestly, in this particular football game, they were the better team,” Bell said, after Harvard had absorbed a 21-0 defeat at the hands of the Knights in a semifinal playoff game at Righetti High.

“But I’m not convinced they were the better team overall and I’m not convinced that we faced a team that was better than us this year. Tonight, it just went their way. We fumbled six times and they didn’t fumble once on a field that looked like the Pacific Ocean,” he said.

“If that makes them the better team, then so be it.”

While Bell may not have been convinced that the 10-3 Knights were the better team, Harvard Coach Gary Thran was. “St. Joseph played much better than we did,” Thran said. “I would have liked to have played under better conditions, but both teams played under the same conditions. Both their offensive and defensive lines were beating us off the ball.”

St. Joseph definitely dominated both sides of the line. The defense held Bell to 19 yards on nine carries and the Saracens to 100 yards in total offense on the night. The Knight offense, meanwhile, rolled up 307 yards, 121 of those yards on the ground by senior fullback Pat Huguenard.

The victory moved St. Joseph into next week’s Desert-Mountain Conference championship game against Los Padres League rival Atascadero. Harvard ended its season with an 11-2 record.

“Basically, our four guys (the interior linemen) beat their four guys,” said St. Joseph assistant coach Jim Peterson. “Our front four did a helluva job.”

Thran said the heavy rain, which began about five hours before game time, played a key role in the outcome.

“We’re a finesse team and the weather really hurt us, but it just didn’t seem to bother them,” he said.

Thran added that Bell, unlike Huguenard, was also at the mercy of the elements. “He’s not a power runner, and that’s what you need in this kind of game.”

St. Joseph wasted no time in establishing its dominance, driving 74 yards in just eight plays following the opening kickoff. Huguenard, who finished the first half with 77 yards in 18 carries, capped the march with a one-yard dive over the right side.

Bell gave the ball back to St. Joseph on Harvard’s first offensive play, fumbling the handoff from quarterback Mike Patterson away to Shayne MacCuish at the Saracen 34.

Harvard escaped further troubles for the moment when linebacker Martin Holly stopped Huguenard short on fourth down at the 15, but St. Joseph came right back to score as Huguenard dove over left guard from two yards out to cap a 63-yard 13-play march with 8:43 left in the second quarter.

Halfback Roy Killgore scored St. Joseph’s final touchdown on a two-yard run with 4:32 left to play in the third quarter.