SAN DIEGO HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : Mt. Carmel Makes Its Point With 14-7 Victory

This game, matching two teams that hadn’t given up a point all season, seemed destined to be a tie.

Mt. Carmel and Mira Mesa both scored touchdowns in the first quarter for a 7-7 tie, then both defenses clamped down.

There were no turnovers for three quarters, and drives that either team did put together had been halted by penalties.

Mt. Carmel quarterback Chris Beeman wasn’t thinking tie.

“I knew our defense was going to get us the ball deep in their territory,” he said, “I didn’t know how, but I just knew it.”

With 49 seconds left in the game, the Mt. Carmel defense did get it back. Mira Mesa’s Alen Caimpon fumbled after catching a short pass and Mt. Carmel recovered at the Mira Mesa 21-yard line.

Four plays later, on third down from the 26, Beeman hit Alan Cross on a broken play for a touchdown pass that broke the tie and gave Mt. Carmel a 14-7 victory.

Mt. Carmel improved to 3-0; host Mira Mesa fell to 2-1.

“I have to admit, I was thinking tie there for a while,” Mt. Carmel Coach Bill Christopher said. “Our defense came up with the big play.”

The big defensive play came with Mira Mesa facing third and 33 on its own 12 with one minute left. Mira Mesa Coach Brad Griffith, called for a pass-lateral play.

Quarterback Ed Allison completed the pass to Caimpon in the left flat. But as he tried to pitch the ball to a trailing Bobby Nelson, Caimpon was hit and fumbled.

Beeman, who completed 11 of 17 passes for 198 yards, hit Gannon Tidwell for 10 yards to give Mt. Carmel a first down on the Mira Mesa 11.

After a one yard run by Mark King and an incomplete pass, Mt. Carmel was sent back to the 26 on a holding call.

That was nothing new, considering the two teams combined for more than 100 yards in penalties in the second half alone.

Faced with a long third down play and no timeouts, Christopher called for Beeman to look for Cross cutting over the middle.

When Cross broke, however, Beeman was in trouble trying to avoid a big Mira Mesa rush.

Beeman scrambled free, and Cross cut again, turning to the far corner of the end zone. Beeman hit Cross for the winning score.

“Sometimes you have to be lucky,” Christopher said.

Before its winning score, Mt. Carmel moved the ball effectively only once, on its first possession.

The Sundevils took the opening kickoff and drove 76 yards for a touchdown, Beeman hitting Cross to culminate the drive on an eight-yard scoring play.

Mira Mesa tied the score late in the first quarter on Matt Patascil’s one-yard run.

Briefly--El Cajon Valley 27, Christian 20; Rancho Buena Vista 21, CETYS 8.