Newbury Park Wins Wild Semifinal Shootout Over Atascadero

The Panthers defense was run over by Atascadero but they survived to tell about it. Newbury Park made the biggest stop of the game late in the fourth quarter to advance to the championship.

Newbury Park’s 49-48 CIF Southern Section Northern Division semifinal win over Atascadero was preserved when the Panthers stopped Marc Martin’s just short of the goal line on a two-point conversion attempt with 3:36 to play.

The Greyhounds had cut the deficit to one on Tommy Carr’s 1-yard sneak. Rather than tie the game, the Greyhounds went for the lead in this wild back-and-forth contest.

The Panthers could not run out the clock and the Greyhounds had one more shot but they turned the ball over on downs without mounting a serious scoring threat.

Newbury Park will play at Paso Robles for the CIF crown next week.

Daniel Prieto threw four touchdown passes, two of them went to Darnay Holmes.

Atascadero rushed for close to 500 yards on the ground as they end their year at 10-3.

The Panthers are 11-2.