St. Francis remembers what it felt like to lose in last season s Central Coast Section Division II final and does not want to experience the feeling again Friday night.
We certainly talked about that today, coach Greg Calcagno said Monday. We got to this game last year and didn t do what we had hoped to do, and it was a long off season.
We hope to end the season with a win and be one of the few teams in the section that ends the season with a win.
St. Francis, which lost to Los Gatos in the title game last December, will face another familiar opponent for the championship this time around, West Catholic Athletic League rival Archbishop Mitty.
The teams will play Friday at Westmont High.
The past two games between Mitty and St. Francis have come down the final play, with Mitty winning by a point last season and St. Francis winning by a point in October.
I don t expect it to be a high-scoring affair, Calcagno said. I think they re two very, very good defenses, and offenses that try to run the football. I expect it to be another physical battle and a very close game.
St. Francis, which finished fourth in the WCAL this season, does not need to be reminded that it was a play or two from qualifying for the Open Division bracket.
The Lancers lost to Open finalist Bellarmine 17-14.
They lost to Open semifinalist Valley Christian 21-14 in overtime.
They lost at Serra 14-2.
And they lost at Palma 21-12.
Calcagno said in some ways it is hard not to look back at those near-misses.
This year we were the fourth WCAL team, and they took three (to the Open), he said. The year before we were the fifth, and they took four — and last year s season was pretty similar. When we did lose, they were very, very close games. But close doesn t really matter. It s still a loss.
We think we can play with anybody in the section. But this is where we are, and we re playing a great opponent that we know pretty well. There is a lot of tradition and history with the Lancers and the Monarchs.
We re excited to play them.
