Golden Knight for Sciarra

LA CANADA — Two fierce rivals. Two of the region’s most efficient quarterbacks.

Too bad somebody had to lose.

St. Francis High and Crescenta Valley, located about five miles apart, didn’t meet for a quarter of a century until last year.

On Friday night, they combined to pack a couple of decades worth of thrills into the Golden Knights’ 25-13 nonleague victory at St. Francis.

A capacity crowd of more than 4,000 at St. Francis provided a playoff-type atmosphere as quarterbacks John Sciarra of the Golden Knights and Scott Vossmeyer of the Falcons put on a show.

“Anyone who thinks that high school football is dead in this community should have come out to this game,” said Coach Alan Eberhart of Crescenta Valley.

The game was in doubt until Sciarra connected with Brett Mitchell for a 29-yard touchdown pass with five minutes left to cushion what was a 19-13 lead.

“That was one heck of a high school football game,” said Coach Bill Redell of St. Francis.

Sciarra completed 18 of 27 passes for 258 yards and three touchdowns.

He completed five each to twins Mark (52 yards) and Kenny Garcia (73 yards) and Brett Mitchell (93). Each scored a touchdown.

Vossmeyer connected on 15 of 27 for 224 yards. Steve Carballo caught seven for 148 yards.

Steve Rigamat caught a nine-yard scoring pass from Vossmeyer.

St. Francis, ranked No. 9 in the region by The Times, outgained the No. 8 Falcons, 317-303.

St. Francis forced three first-half fumbles and kept constant pressure on Vossmeyer.

Crescenta Valley helped matters by having a touchdown called back because of a holding penalty and snapping a ball over the punter’s head.

“That was a game where we had all the breaks,” Redell said.

“It wasn’t so much that we outplayed them.”

The Golden Knights also had Pat Weisenberg, a 6-foot-4 senior linebacker who sat out his junior season with an injury.

Weisenberg deflected two passes by Vossmeyer and added a sack and fumble recovery.

Tailbacks Matt Milton and Jimmy Knauf, who combined for more than 200 yards rushing last week against Arcadia, were limited to 77 in 24 carries against Crescenta Valley.

Milton, who scored on a 35-yard run in the second quarter to give St. Francis a 13-0 lead, gained 52 yards in 12 carries.

Wes Jones rushed for 44 yards in nine carries, including a seven-yard scoring run that cut St. Francis’ advantage to 19-13 in the third quarter.

Sciarra’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell on a quick slant in the fourth quarter sealed it.

St. Francis, which took advantage of several Arcadia mistakes last week in a 26-16 upset victory, forced three Falcon turnovers in the first half and kept Vossmeyer constantly on the run.

Vossmeyer, who completed 13 of 16 passes last week, connected on 10 of 13 in the first half against the Golden Knights.

His nine-yard scoring pass to Steve Rigamat with 14 seconds left in the second quarter cut the margin to 13-7.