By BRIAN REED-BAIOTTO, Sports Editor The drought is over! La Salle won its first Angelus League game in school history, as the Lancers held off St. Paul Friday night, 16-14. The Lancers (5-3, 1-2) were 0-12 in Angelus League games over the past two-plus seasons. Amon Milliner and the offense took a 16-14 lead into […]
By BRIAN REED-BAIOTTO, Sports Editor
The drought is over!
La Salle won its first Angelus League game in school history, as the Lancers held off St. Paul Friday night, 16-14.
The Lancers (5-3, 1-2) were 0-12 in Angelus League games over the past two-plus seasons.
Amon Milliner and the offense took a 16-14 lead into the break at halftime.
But it was the defense, led by a hobbled Myles Cecil, that kept St. Paul (3-5, 1-2) scoreless in the second half, and secured the historic win.
Cecil, limping around still had two sacks, tackles for losses and chased St. Paul quarterback Alfredo Reyes around all night.
“I love this school,” Cecil said. “I’d do anything I could for this school and this team.”
St. Paul took a 7-0 lead when Armando Velasco rumbled in from 5 yards out midway through the first quarter.
Johnny Clarizio got the Lancers on the board with a 40-yard field goal with 1:31 to play in the first quarter.
The Lancers took their first lead when Milliner sprinted in from 46 yards out, and La Salle led 10-7.
After a couple penalties and looking like they were going to have to punt, Harrison MacDonald caught a pass from Jake Caan and took it 66 yards to the St. Paul 4-yard line.
MacDonald’s long run and catch set up AJ Akobian’s 1-yard TD run that gave La Salle a 16-7 lead.
St. Paul seemed to take momentum into the locker room, though, when it drove down, and Anthony Diaz took a 14-yard pass from Alfredo Reyes with just 45 seconds left in the half and the Swordsmen were within two points at 16-14.
Both defense’s would do the rest of the work, but it was La Salle’s that came up the biggest.
Jake Rose, Myles Cecil, Anthony Fajardo, Rjay Wagner, Wyatt Cimino, Ryan Sparks and the entire defense came up huge.
In fact, Fajardo recovered a St. Paul fumble.
Milliner did rush for 138 yards on 26 carries, including the 46-yard TD.
But it was what he did with his right foot that will perhaps be overlooked by many.
With 2 minutes to play and a 16-14 lead, the Lancers were going backwards and set to punt.
Milliner, who took over this week as the punter, saved his best for last with a 50-yard kick from his own 10-yard line and St. Paul was never able to crack the Lancers defense to even get close to field-goal range.
“It feels great to make La Salle history,” Milliner said with a smile. “Our defense is great and my man (Myles) Cecil does everything to help this team win.”
MacDonald caught 4 passes for 90 yards.
Caan finished 8 of 13 for 103 yards and was picked twice.
Tommy Radle had three catches for 18 yards.
Gordon was emotional after seeing the happiness on the faces of 22 seniors who had yet to win a league game in their nearly-three years in the Angelus League.
“Our defense came out and played an extremely tough ball game,” Gordon said. Myles is very special to us. As a player and a student-athlete. Myles has great character. It’s hard to hold back tears, because these kids deserve it. They got thrown up 7 divisions and they fought through it.”
Player Quotes:
Myles Cecil: “I probably played at about 50 percent in terms of power and ability to make cuts. But in terms of a team, we did a very good job, and need to get some more productivity out of our offense. It was really important to get this win. I love this school. Even with one leg I would have been out there.”
Jake Caan: “We got the win. It was incredible for us. We have 22 seniors and have been waiting for this for a long time. Our defense is the real deal. We (the offense) need to step up and help them out some times. Myles Cecil is the best defensive end in this league.”
Harrison MacDonald: “It means a lot to us. We hadn’t won a game in this league. We’d been working for it. I did as much as I could to try and set us up. We didn’t play as well as we could, but this win means the world to us.”
Amon Milliner: “Our defense is great. Myles Cecil is the man. I wanted to do anything I can to help this team win.”
Box Score:
St. Paul: 7-7-0-0-(14)
La Salle: 3-13-0-0-(16)
Scoring:
SP: Armando Velasco 5 run (Gerek Melendrez kick)
LS: Johnny Clarizio 40 FG
LS: Amon Milliner 46 TD (Clarizio kick)
LS: AJ Akobian 1 run (bad snap, no kick)
SP: Anthony Diaz 14 pass from Alfredo Reyes (Melendrez kick)
Angelus League Standings:
St. Francis (8-0 overall, 3-0 in league)
Cathedral (8-0, 3-0)
La Salle (5-3, 1-2)
Salesian (5-3, 1-2)
St. Paul (3-4, 1-2)
Harvard-Westlake (3-5, 0-3)
Friday’s Angelus League Scores:
La Salle 16, St. Paul 14
St. Francis 49, Harvard-Westlake 7
Cathedral 37, Salesian 36
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