Camarillo's remarkable comeback ends with heartbreaking overtime loss in Div. 6 semifinals
The dizzying momentum swing was so euphoric and baffling that Max Carter figured it had to be the work of a higher power.
“That was crazy,” the Camarillo senior said. “Everything went our way. For a time, the football gods were on our side.”
After a flat first half and a frustrating third quarter, the Camarillo High football team put together an epic comeback during a frantic fourth quarter that nearly swept it into the CIF-Southern Section Division 6 final.
Despite trailing 24-3 with 8:18 left and 31-17 with less than two minutes to play, the Scorpions forced overtime in Friday night’s semifinal at Thompson Field.
“We were going to live to see another day,” Carter said. “Sometimes it doesn’t work out like that. That’s the great game of football.
“We all fought to the end, but it happens.”
Zach Zella hit Christian Kretz for the decisive 5-yard touchdown pass as visiting Temecula Valley survived Camarillo’s onslaught, 37-31.
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“It was a roller coaster,” said junior Brandon Contreras. “I’ve lost in the semifinals already my freshman year. That hurt, but I feel like this one hurts more because I have a connection with the seniors who are going to be gone. It’s heartbreaking. It really is.”
Contreras caught 12 passes for 102 yards, returned a kickoff for a touchdown and intercepted a pass to lead Camarillo, which finished its season at 8-5.
“He’s a player,” Camarillo head coach Jack Willard said. “We tried to get the ball to him as often as we could on offense. He’s an explosive player and a competitor.”
Brody Meyer completed 29 of 48 passes for 264 yards, three TDs and three interceptions. Carter caught four passes for 38 yards and two TDs. Ryan Winchester caught three passes for 42 yards and a TD.
After building a 17-0 lead in the first half, Temecula Valley (10-3) seemingly put the game away on Zella’s 3-yard TD keeper with 8:18 to play.
“As a senior, there’s no reason to give up,” said Camarillo linebacker Jamie Schatmeier. “If this was going to be my last game, there no point in giving up when there’s still eight minutes left in the game … and look what happened.”
After 40 minutes of frustration, Camarillo finally began to stir.
After Meyer’s 27-yard scoring strike to Winchester, junior Marcos Jaquez recovered a fumble on the Temecula 32 with 6:01 left.
Meyer’s 18-yard TD pass to Carter — Camarillo’s second score in three minutes — pulled the Scorpions within 24-17 with 5:07 to play.
Temecula Valley again seemed to put the game out of reach with Zella’s 38-yard scoring strike to Samuel Gbatu Jr., which pushed the lead to 31-17 with 1:58 left.
But Contreras returned the subsequent kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown to reenergize the home sideline.
“He hadn’t been kicking it to me all game,” Contreras said. “He just happened to kick in on a line drive right to me. It was kind of a perfect hop. But I don’t do that if my guys don’t block. … It was a wide-open lane that all my guys created for me.”
Despite a blocked PAT, the Scorpions were within 31-23 with 1:45 left. They kept possession when Robert Valles III recovered an onside kick.
Seven plays later, Carter reeled in a 5-yard Meyer TD pass on a fade in the corner of the end zone to pull Camarillo within 31-29 with 44 seconds left.
Meyer hit Schatmeier, who typically stars for Camarillo at middle linebacker, for the two-point conversion to tie the game, 31-31.
“Not too bad hands for a (middle linebacker) right?” Schatmeier said. “We haven’t run that package for almost eight weeks now. I know they haven’t seen that look in forever.
“I had a strong feeling I was going to be open. It was just whether or not I’d catch it.”
As expected, Schatmeier was open in the corner of the end zone.
“It was all slow motion,” Schatmeier said. “Brody threw it and it was like, ‘Oh, shoot, it’s coming to me.’ That was a great feeling.”
However, there was still 44 seconds left. Temecula Valley put itself in position to win with a short field goal.
But linebacker Ethan Nicely added to Camarillo’s long list of heroes by coming off the the line to block the potential game-winning field goal with three seconds left.
“Why not go 100 percent,” Carter said. “If we were going to lose, why not lose going as hard as we can?
“The energy was just so high. I don’t think there was anything bringing us down.”
That forced the overtime session that ended Camarillo’s incredible run and season.
Camarillo’s third straight trip to the semifinals opened with a thud.
“We started slow offensively again,” Willard said.
After Camarillo was stopped on fourth-and-1 from its 47, Temecula Valley took a 7-0 lead on Tyler Ransom’s 8-yard TD run.
Temecula Valley doubled the lead with a 14-play, 78-yard scoring drive with 3:28 left in the first half.
Trailing 17-3 at the half, Camarillo had two chances to pull closer in the third quarter.
But it couldn’t capitalize on possessions that started on the Temecula Valley 15, following a Schatmeier interception, and Temecula Valley 37.
“The third quarter hurt,” Willard said. “We had two opportunities. We just didn’t cash them in. … Those were opportunities for us to climb back into it.”
Joe Curley covers high school, collegiate and professional football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage of local high school sports, follow @vcspreps on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Camarillo's remarkable comeback ends with heartbreaking overtime loss
