Greyhounds escape San Luis Obispo with a nail-biting victory over Tigers, 21-20 

Report and photos by Jonathan Sze,

– The Atascadero Greyhounds prevailed over the San Luis Obispo Tigers by a score of 21-20 at Holt Field in San Luis Obispo. The win takes Atascadero to 5-0 with a 2-0 record in the Ocean League while San Luis Obispo is at 3-3 with a 1-1 record in Ocean League.

The teams traded three and outs before San Luis Obispo received decent field position on a punt. After some first downs on the legs of junior running back Isaiah Hernandez, senior quarterback Jace Gomes kept it himself from 15 yards out to make it 7-0.

The ensuing possession by the Greyhounds was moving along before a pair of penalties threatened to stop the drive, but a fourth and one conversion by junior running back Austin Smith extended the drive, and senior quarterback Kane Cooks ran it in at the goal line to tie the game back up at 7-7 with two seconds left in the first quarter.

A pair of punts followed, but Atascadero’s punt ended up hitting a San Luis Obispo blocker and the Greyhounds fell on it to retain possession.

A big run from Cooks along with a pass interference on San Luis Obispo set up Atascadero deep into Tigers territory for a Cooks quarterback sneak as time winded down in the second quarter to make it 14-7.

After burning all of their timeouts on the Atascadero drive, San Luis Obispo had a little over a minute to drive down the field and score. Inside the Greyhound 30-yard line the field goal unit came out for a 46-yard field goal but Atascadero called a timeout to ice senior kicker Ben Oetman that was prolonged by the stadium lights shutting off.

Another timeout was called after the lights came back on wiping out Oetman’s successful field goal, Oetman’s kick after the timeout was pulled wide left but the Greyhounds roughed him up and a penalty gave him a second chance from 32 yards. Oetman’s second chance was also missed to end the half.

Receiving the opening second-half kickoff, Atascadero drove down the field with a 10-yard rush by junior running back Joseph Hyde capping off the drive to make it 21-7.

San Luis Obispo drove down the field with Hernandez once again the driving engine of the drive, but the drive was cut short with an interception by senior cornerback Mason Degnan near the endzone.

On the Tigers’ next possession with time quickly running out in the fourth quarter San Luis Obispo was forced to go for it on fourth down but the pass was overthrown with nine and a half minutes left.

San Luis Obispo got the ball back with about six and a half minutes left, and quickly stalled out with a fourth and nine at midfield. Gomes fired a pass down the field to junior wide receiver Finnigan Hickey for a touchdown to cut it to one possession with 4:14 left in the game.

Atascadero had a shorter drive giving San Luis Obispo a little over two minutes with a tipped punt giving San Luis Obispo short field position to look to tie the game.

A lot of runs in the first quarter, was that part of the game plan or in response to what you saw from San Luis Obispo

Jace Gomes took a broken play action on second down and ran it to the house from 15 yards out with the Tigers just an extra point away from tying it with 59 seconds left, however, the kick was blocked by Atascadero making it 21-20 and forcing an onside kick.

The onside kick was recovered by Cooks and subsequent kneeldowns by Atascadero made the result official.

“We want to be a run-first team,” said head coach Victor Cooper. “But have done well to mix in a passing game to keep teams off balance.”

Atascadero returns home to face the Oakland Wildcats in a non-conference matchup at War Memorial Stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m.