MISSION VIEJO — Pittsburg’s magical season came to a heartbreaking end on Friday night.
The Pirates gave all they could, but couldn’t finish the job as they fell to Lincoln-San Diego 28-26 in the CIF Division I-AA state championship game at Saddleback College.
The Pirates had a chance to tie the game late, but could not convert a two-point conversion to force overtime.
Running back Jamar Searcy had his best game in a Pittsburg uniform, scoring four touchdowns.
Lincoln took it to Pittsburg’s early.
The Hornets put the first points on the board when Akili Smith Jr. found Courtney Miller-Thompson on a six-yard swing pass to the end zone.
The Hornets held Pittsburg’s offense scoreless in the first quarter as the Pirates could only muster 62 yards.
Pittsburg’s offense got going in the second quarter.
On the first play of Pittsburg’s third possession, Searcy rushed for a 47-yard score down the sideline that tied the game at 7.
Lincoln momentarily took back the lead after wide receiver Ty Olson made a spectacular catch in the right corner of the end zone to put the Hornets up 14-7 with under two minutes left before halftime.
But Pittsburg ended the half strong, driving 63 yards in just over a minute and a half to tie the game with a Searcy 2-yard plunge into the end zone.
At the end of the first half, Searcy accounted for 194 of Pittsburg’s 212 yards of offense.
After Lincoln forced a stop on Pittsburg’s first possession of the third quarter, the Hornets struck again when Smith threw his third touchdown pass of the game, this time to senior receiver Isaiah Grant who ran in for a 77-yard score to put Lincoln up 21-14.
But Searcy continued to will his team. On third-and-long in the red zone, the Washington State commit caught a one-handed pass at the goal line and finished the drive with his third touchdown of the game on a one-yard rush. Pittsburg missed the extra point, but cut the lead to one with just over five minutes left in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Lincoln’s explosive offense took a page out of De La Salle’s playbook and decided to slow the pace. The Hornets chewed up over six minutes of time and drove 80 yards in 12 plays to take an eight-point advantage.
In Pittsburg’s final drive of the fourth quarter, quarterback Marley Alcantara strung together his best possession of the game. He led the Pirates into the Lincoln red zone and Searcy punched in a 4-yard score on fourth-and-two. Needing to tie, Pittsburg went for the two-point conversion but Searcy couldn’t run it in.
Pittsburg tried to recover an onside kick, but couldn’t come up with the ball and Lincoln iced the game from there.