Each team came in with massive offensive numbers, yet Thursday's nonleague contest turned out to be more of a defensive battle.
Brandon Dawkins wasn't able to lead Oaks Christian to a game-tying score in the waning minutes of Thursday's contest against Chaminade.
File photo by John Downey
Both
Oaks Christian (Westlake Village, Calif.) and
Chaminade (West Hills, Calif.) came into Thursday's contest sporting high-flying offensive numbers. All eyes were on the battle's likelihood for a shootout.
What ended up happening was definitely not.
Brad Kaaya scored the winning touchdown.
File photo by Larry Gasinski
Chaminade won the televised nonleague contest 21-14 thanks to a lengthy fourth-quarter touchdown drive and a defensive stop deep in its own territory. One of the
National Top 10 Games of the Week, it was expected to be a barn burner. While the points weren't as numerous as expected, the excitement was.
The Eagles drove 74 yards on 14 plays before
Brad Kaaya converted a fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak for the winning touchdown with 2:30 left. Perhaps it should not have come to that, as television replays showed that Chaminade fumbled twice on the drive but each play was whistled down.
Cory Watkins fumbled with 3:35 left and Oaks Christian's
Andre Chevalier came up with the ball but it was ruled down and Chaminade had possession at the 22. Later in the drive,
Donovan Lee fumbled on his third-down run that got the ball within the 1. Once again, it was ruled down.
Kaaya's sneak came right after that to take the lead. The 6-foot-4, 209-pound Miami commit got the ball over the line - but not by a large margin.
It was a matchup featuring star quarterbacks, and Oaks Christian's
Brandon Dawkins showed his mettle by battling his team downfield to attempt to tie the game. He found
Zack Bornstein for 18 yards and on the next play connected with
Jeremy Vincent for 35 to get to the 37 of Chaminade. A spectacular catch on the sideline by
Chris Davis got it down to the 13 with 1:39 left, and that's when things unraveled for the Lions.
Dawkins couldn't convert the game-tying touchdown pass on four attempts in the red zone, as the final attempt zipped too far away from Davis' hands on the edge of the end zone.
Oaks Christian came in averaging more than 52 points per game and Chaminade came in averaging around 56. The yardage was there but the points weren't. According to the Fox Sports West broadcast, Chaminade tallied 438 yards and Oaks Christian netted 316. Nineteen total penalties slowed the game down.
Lee scored from the 1 in the first quarter and Chaminade converted a 2-point conversion to take the first lead, then Davis caught a 12-yard scoring pass from Dawkins before Dawkins scored on a 2-point run to tie the contest.
Jamie Sullivan connected on a 51-yard field goal in the early third quarter to give the Lions an 11-8 lead and Chaminade tied it when
Ben Kreitenberg made a field goal from 27 yards out.
Sullivan then made another field goal from 39 yards out to make it 14-11 before a 39-yarder from Kreitenberg knotted the score again.
Oaks Christian came in No. 6 in the
MaxPreps Top 25 Southern California Football Rankings, while Chaminade was 14th. Each team is now 3-1.
