Foibles football brings Lighthouse loss to Calvary Baptist

A disciplined Calvary Baptist La Verne broke the winning streak of Lighthouse Christian Academy, which played foibles football in a high-pressure game losing 22-38.

Having swept past opponents in the last four games, LCA looked to stop La Verne, whose win record this season showed them to be one the league’s the toughest opponents in CIF Southern Section 8-man football.

“We needed to play a very, very, very mistake-free football game in order to win this game,” said Coach Zach Scribner. "We almost were able to pull it off. All in all, I'm proud of the way the guys responded, proud of the way they fought until the end. We didn't give up."

In the first half, the Lighthouse fumbled several times, mis-tackled and positioned themselves wrong.

Even so, the Saints showed some of their velocity and ferocity. Junior Levi Photenhauer ran a kickoff back to a touchdown and later caught a wild pass to run into the end zone.

At half, LCA was still very much in the game, trailing only 14-30.

At half time, defensive coordinator Lucas Moraida strategized to patch the holes.

Unfortunately, so did the defense of Calvary Baptist. Accordingly, there were fewer touchdowns. Both teams were limited to one touchdown each.

With only five minutes, Lighthouse looked to mount a spectacular comeback when senior Jordan Shepherd tipped a pass and senior Garrett Lahood caught the ball and ran for a touchdown. He then kept running, even when the Cougars thought they had dragged him down, and made a conversion for two points.

It was a moment of excitement, but the Saints couldn’t capitalize the momentum to even the score.

Calvary Baptist La Verne is very similar to Lighthouse. With about 50 kids in its high school, it begs boys to play. A difference-maker was they had five seniors, while Lighthouse had only one.

"The first responsibility of this game comes on us coaches in our inability to adapt as well as we need to," Scribner said to his team after the loss. "On your part: tackling. You need to wrap up. We cannot just lose that part of the game. If we adapt, we score more touchdowns. If we wrap up, they score less touchdowns."

Lighthouse is now 4-2 and hasn't lost the possibility of making playoffs. Three games remain.

"This is the first game we've had to fight," said Coach Justin Kayne, offensive coordinator. "Every other game we've won, we've blown them out. There's a lot to learn from this, coaches and players. But our guys played hard. Our guys didn't lay down. We scored a late touchdown. We brought it to them."

Pictured: Levi Photenhauer, the red head; Garrett Lahood, and pictured separately Jordan Shepherd who tipped a ball, leading to an LCA touchdown and smothered a fumbled football.

Here's Lighthouse's season-ending victory over Brethren Christian of Huntington Beach. Here's LCA's playoff hopes-dashing game against Hillcrest. Read about the lightning-interrupted first half of Lighthouse's game against East Valley High and how they finalized the victory on Monday. Here's an article about how sidelined team captain willed the Saints to victory over Cal Lutheran HS of Wildomar. This is the article of how LCA powerhouse Marcus Scribner was injured and how the Saints beat Teach Academy anyhow. This article talks about how Coach Zach Scribner lost his house but won two games. Read about how one player learned to have a good attitude as LCA overcame Discovery Prep. Lighthouse Christian Academy opened with a loss here.