With a trip to the Division 7 championship game on the line, it was do or die for the Saugus Centurions as the team played in its first semifinal game since 2017.
By the final whistle, the Centurions’ season came to an end on Friday night as the Apple Valley Sun Devils defeated Saugus, 21-7.
It was a season filled with comeback wins and Saugus football making its first appearance in the playoffs since 2022, with players who were on the roster in the winless 0-10 team from two seasons ago.
“It’s just a testament to their character and to who they are as young men, that sometimes life is going to deal you a tough hand to play,” Saugus head coach Jason Bornn said. “You just got to keep rolling with it and keep fighting for another day, and that’s what these kids did, each day this year.”
Throughout the playoffs, the Centurions have always been a second-half team, but in the loss to Apple Valley, Bornn believed that his team’s chances in the second half were out of their hands as on every offensive drive for Saugus, referees were calling plays that had him confused.
“I’m embarrassed to say that I’m part of CIF,” Bornn said, in response to the flags that were thrown in the second half by the officials. “It was the worst officiating job I’ve seen in a very long time. And for both sides, not just for us. I mean, there were calls that they made against them, that I couldn’t believe it. I was like, are you kidding me?”
After the game, Bornn gave credit to the Apple Valley football team for a great game but reiterated that the game should always been played between the kids.
“It was fortunate for them. They won, but so many calls went against us that it was just embarrassing and it’s sad,” he said. “It’s disappointing. I really would have liked the game to come down to the kids and not officials.”
In the opening quarter, the Centurions began the game trailing, much like they have throughout the playoffs.
Following a rushing touchdown from Apple Valley running back Noah Hardeman, Saugus was unable to produce a scoring drive in the next drive.
Dropped passes on third down and runs that were stopped in the line of scrimmage highlighted the first half for the Saugus offense.
And while the Centurions defense was able to force Apple Valley to commit a turnover on downs in the second quarter, Saugus was unable to score on the next drive despite the momentum surrounding the team.
The Sun Devils went on and extended their lead over Saugus with sophomore quarterback Brett Lanning throwing a touchdown pass with four minutes left to go in the second quarter.
Despite the first half woes for Saugus, the belief around the Centurions sideline was that if there was a comeback, it would come in the second half like in the last two games.
But on the very next play following Apple Valley’s touchdown, Landon Lattimore cut into the Sun Devils lead with a 97-yard kickoff return.
While all the momentum seemed to be with Saugus, an interception thrown by Jake Nuttall late in the first half turned into a scoring opportunity for Apple Valley.
The Sun Devils had field position in the Centurions territory following the pick, and a few plays later, Lanning threw another touchdown pass to extend Apple Valley’s lead 21-7 entering halftime.
Both were scoreless in the third and wouldn’t break into a redzone opportunity until Saugus came close in the fourth quarter.
Following timely passes from Nuttall to Lattimore and Matt Long, the Centurions had the ball five yards out from the goal line.
But back-to-back flags from the officials were called on the Centurions with officials having to call an injury timeout as Teddy Knot was down on the ground with Bornn stating it should have been a flag thrown on as a hit on a defenseless receiver.
“You can look at the iPad and go, ‘You missed that one, you missed that one, you called this,’ and it wasn’t. It’s bad. It’s really, really bad,” he said.
After a turnover on downs after an incomplete pass from Nuttall, momentum swung back to Apple Valley and the Sun Devils ran the clock down and pulled out for the win.
With the loss, the season ends for the Centurions, a year filled with hope for the future, but all Bornn is focused on is processing the loss and evaluating how to move forward after a long season.
“We’ll evaluate, we’ll watch the film, we’ll get better, and we’ll learn and grow from it, and we’ll move on as a program.”
