Woodlake hands playoff-bound Lindsay 31-20 loss

Despite momentum that created a 10-point lead until the last five minutes of the third quarter, the Lindsay Cardinals were unable to contain the Woodlake Tigers’ offense, going down 31-20 Friday night.

“We lost momentum as the game went on and we couldn’t recover.” coach Robert Hurtado said.

Lindsay ended the regular season with a 3-7 (2-2 ESL) record. However, the season isn’t over for the Cardinals, who will be in the playoffs for the first time in four years. 

Penalties haunted the Cardinals all night and things worsened in the fourth quarter when they, were down 24-20 with eight minutes left and had a fourth-and-one on the Tigers’ eight-yard line.

Lindsay opted to attempt a pass for the first down and quarterback Adam Gamboa dropped back and was immediately flushed out of the pocket by Woodlake defenders. Gamboa tossed the ball up into the end zone to receiver Gabriel Rubalcava, who came down with the pass for what seemed to be a touchdown. 

Then the yellow flag was spotted near the line of scrimmage. 

Lindsay were flagged for an ineligible receiver down field and after the fact, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

The Cardinals were now in need of a touchdown, staring at a fourth-and-21 at the Tigers’ 29-yard line.

The Lindsay crowd cheered as Gamboa lofted the ball towards the Woodlake end zone towards Jonathan Duarte, who was open on a corner route. The pass was just out of reach of Duarte, who fell just inches shy of making a game changing touchdown reception.

“When we play this kind of competition, half of a football game just isn’t enough,” Hurtado said.

The Tigers took over on offense after stopping the Cardinals on fourth and began to chew up the remaining 7:48 of the game.

It wasn’t until there were just over three minutes left in the fourth that the Tigers found themselves at a fourth down. The Tigers attempted the fourth down conversion and McMillan found a wide open Eddie Fernandez, who had snuck behind the Cardinal secondary, who worked his way down to the Cardinal five yard line. Two plays after the McMillan-Fernandez connection, Freddy Vigil scored off of a short run up the middle to take a 31-20 lead over the Cardinals with just 2:14 left in the game.

The Cardinals were leading the Tigers 20-10 after a Duarte one yard touchdown dive with over eight minutes left in the third quarter.

The Cardinals’ control over the game came to an end when the Woodlake Tigers were able to drive 61 yards on just two rushing plays. Woodlake quarterback, Matt McMillan darted off the right side for a 35 yard rush. The McMillan rush set up a sweep to running back Vigil, who weaved between Cardinal defenders all the way to the goal line and scored on a 26-yard rush. The score brought the Tigers within three, 20-17.

On the fourth play of the ensuing Cardinal drive, Lindsay tailback Vincent Carlos was stripped of the ball by Woodlake middle linebacker Daniel Mesa.

The Tigers took advantage of the turnover and would drive 55 yards in three minutes and score off of a McMillan rush to take the lead 24-20 with just 11 seconds left in the third quarter.

Coach Hurtado has high hopes for next week’s road playoff game against a, so far, undecided opponent.

 “We will have to practice a little bit harder,” he said. “We are getting better and we are playing some good football.”