MOUNTAIN VIEW — Wilcox senior running back Elijah Walker’s five-touchdown performance against St. Francis had head coach Paul Rosa in awe and perplexed at the same time.
“He had five touchdowns?” Rosa asked during a postgame interview.
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
Walker rushed in for four touchdowns and had a 97-yard kickoff return for a score to propel No. 7 seed Wilcox to a 52-28 road upset over No. 2 St. Francis in the first round of the Central Coast Section Open/Division I playoffs Friday night.
Quarterback Tyson Bonilla added two rushing touchdowns and the Chargers’ defense forced three turnovers in the win.
“We came in with nothing to lose,” Bonilla said. “We came into this game knowing exactly what we needed to do and we did exactly that.”
Wilcox will play the winner of Saturday’s game between Salinas and top-seeded Serra next week for the CCS Open Division championship and a spot in a state game. The Open loser will play for the section’s Division I title in two weeks,
The Lancers’ season ends as they finish with a 7-4 record.
St. Francis got off to a solid lead early in part because of senior running back Kingston Keanaaina. He ended the game with three touchdowns with two being over 75 yards.
The 5-foot-11 junior took a handoff 74 yards to the end zone on the second play of the game to put the Lancers up 7-0.
Wilcox briefly took a 17-14 lead after Walker ran for a six-yard touchdown early in the second quarter. But Keanaaina found paydirt once again when he plunged into the end zone on a two-yard rush with just over four minutes left in the second quarter to put Saint Francis up 21-17 at the half.
Wilcox opened the second half with a five-minute possession that ended with a 13-yard touchdown from Walker that put the Chargers up 24-21.
Keanaaina found the end zone once again on a 76-yard touchdown down the left sideline to put the Lancers back on top 28-21 with 5:20 left in the third.
But Keanaaina’s touchdown was the only points that the Chargers allowed for the rest of the game.
From there, Wilcox proceeded to score 28 unanswered points led by the rushing attack of Bonilla and Walker.
The death blow came after linebacker Brayden Rosa recovered a fumble that set up the Chargers offense at the 47-yard line. On the ensuing possession, Walker broke through the left side of the line for a 30-yard touchdown to put Wilcox up 45-28 with 9:48 remaining in the game.
“Ground and pound is what we do,” Walker said. “You’re gonna have some four-yard runs, but all you need is one to break through. And tonight, I just so happened to have five.”
Rosa and Walker credited the offensive line with the success of the run game on Friday. Led by University of Arizona commit Justin “Moose” Hylkema, the Chargers were able to rush their way to a road victory.
“Moose had a great game and a lot of those rush yards came from our offensive lineman,” Rosa said.
Walker added, “Those running lanes were massive. You couldn’t miss them. Big-time linemen are going to make big-time blocks.”
