San Marcos Drops Defensive Slugfest to Beckman 10-7

San Marcos hosted its first home game of the season coming off a big 55-0 win against Knight last week, but visiting Beckman was able to score in the final minute of a close game, to come out with a hard fought 10-7 victory.

The Beckman Patriots (1-0) were coming off a 35-0 shutout victory of their own, and Defense was the name of the game for the first three quarters. The San Marcos defensive line was making it difficult for Beckman’s offense to get anything going early. Credit to Defensive End Roman Gislimberti, who had multiple sacks and pass deflections on the night.

San Marcos’ offense was run focused to start the first half. Running back Nathan Jones had some tough runs between the tackles, but penalties were plentiful for the Royals and ended some key drives right before the 1st half ended.

San Marcos opened up their offense to start the second half. Senior Danny Diaz displayed his throwing accuracy on some screen plays, but penalties continued to haunt the Royals and halted their drive to start the 3rd quarter.

On Beckman’s opening possession of the half, a holding penalty set them back early on the drive, which then led to an errant pass leading to a San Marcos interception by Quinn Donnell. As the 3rd quarter was winding down San Marcos attempted to get some points on the board with a 44-yard field goal but missed wide right.

The game was still tied 0-0 to start the 4th quarter, until the Patriots were able to finally secure 3 points on a 33-yard field goal with 9:51 remaining.

As San Marcos took the field on their next possession, they desperately needed their first points of the game to secure some momentum from the home crowd. Diaz zipped the ball to sophomore Remy Boykin for a big gain to start off the critical drive.

The drive continued with a big third-down conversion from Diaz to Quinn Donnell. As San Marcos made its first appearance in the red zone, Nathan Jones ran hard into the endzone for the first touchdown of the game for either team making the score 7-3.

With 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Patriots offense was stalled by a stout San Marcos defense. As Beckman punted the ball away the Royal offense had possession of the ball, but with time running down they couldn’t convert a first down to seal the game, giving Beckman one last chance to score at the San Marcos’s 41 yard-line.

The Royals’ defense was able to hold Beckman to a critical 4th down, but Quarterback Noah Nam threw a strike across the middle for a big gain to not only convert the long 4th down, but set the Patriots up in the red zone with time running down. With 42 seconds left in the game, Noah Nam called his own number and ran it into the endzone, making the score 10-7.

San Marcos had one last opportunity to drive down the field but turned the ball over on an interception to end the game.

San Marcos (1-1) looks to bounce back next week against 1-1 the Santa Ynez Pirates at home.