Los Amigos holds on for thrilling victory over Uni, captures Omicron League crown

Los Amigos players, coaches and cheerleaders celebrate after Friday’s win. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

As the game went on, it looked like Friday night’s Omicron League football showdown between Los Amigos and University would come down to just about the final possession.

That’s just what happened as Los Amigos held off a late charge by Univesity to capture a wild 34-31 hard-fought victory at Uni.

Both teams came into the game undefeated in league and both had already earned CIF playoff berths.

Los Amigos has had its share of league titles, the last one coming in 2024. But Uni was looking to earn the program’s first since 2007. The Trojans already earned the program’s first trip to the CIF playoffs since 2015.

In a dramatic fourth quarter, Alexis Marcelo-Chamu of Los Amigos scored on a 5-yard TD run with 6:13 remaining in the back and forth game to put the Lobos (9-1, 5-0) ahead 34-31.

But University (6-4, 4-0) drove all the way to the Los Amigos 3-yard line and got closer when the Lobos were called for offsides. Los Amigos made a stop on a third-and-one running play.

Then a costly illegal procedure call moved the ball back to the 6 with about 40 seconds left. After calling their final timeout, on fourth down, Uni quarterback Dylan Elmer could not find an open receiver, so he ran toward the end zone but was knocked out of bounds at the 3-yard line and the Trojans’ comeback fell short.

To see additional photos, click on the first picture:

University coaches did not weigh going for a possible game-tying field goal, wanting to win the game in regulation.

“We have too much bad luck in overtime,” said University Coach Vince Mesa. “That last drive, we just had a miscue. We had a penalty in the end and a little false start and I thought we had the right play called, we had to switch the play up. I thought we had that first down for sure and we didn’t get the spot. It was a great game, both teams fought to the end, we just came up short.”

“We had a similar game to this last year, it’s {is unfortunate} coming up short like this,” Elmer said. “But we’re fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play in CIF next week, and that was a lot of our goals this season. We’ve got to just keep our heads up and let this loss motivate us and make us work harder for the next few weeks hopefully.”

Elmer, a senior, had quite a game for the Trojans passing for 285 yards and four touchdown passes and became the first Trojan to pass for 4,000 yards in a career, according to the Uni football statistician. He was hoping to make one more big play.

“I came up a little short, I think I just got to be more decisive in that moment, I think I will learn from it because if I think if I had run the ball sooner or cut it up quicker I think I could have gotten maybe an extra yard or two and helped our team right there,” he said of the Trojans final play. “I got tackled on the sideline a little bit.”

Los Amigos seemed to answer every University score with a score of its own, led by quarterback Mytell Smith, who completed 14 of 15 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns, all to his brother Dennis Smith III, a senior.

The two hooked up on a pair of 35-yard TD passes in the first half and a 28-yard TD pass in the third quarter. The receiver wound up with 10 catches for 172 yards.

“It feels amazing getting the opportunity to be able to throw those touchdown passes to him, and I’m grateful, he’s amazing also,” the Lobos quarterback said. “I love my offensive line, it’s the best offensive line in the league and the country I feel like.”

Smith, a junior, said he believed the defense would hold off the Trojans last charge.

“I believe in my team, I knew we were going to get the stop,” he said.

Los Amigos Coach Melo Guess praised the Smith brothers.

“Mytrell was amazing, him and his brother have this special connection on offense,” Guess said. “That’s hard to coach when you have a brother throwing to a brother. Who else has that? These dudes play so together, they embrace the family aspect of football and I think that showed tonight more than anything.”

Guess and his assistants congratulated the Lobos for winning the league title but indicated they have higher goals.

“We’re excited but we’ve won league titles before, that was a goal of our’s, it wasn’t the end goal,” he said. “Our end goal was trying to make a run in CIF. I’ve done 10-0 before and that was great, and lost in the second round. I’ve won league titles and lost in the first round. League titles are great, we’ve hung a bunch of those up at the school. But we’re looking to hold a CIF title at the end of this.”

University got solid efforts from receivers Charlie Carmichael and Moises Keith-Chavez. Carmichael also played his heart out on defense, delivering big hits and after coming out briefly after one of them, returned to the game.

“Charlie is a trooper, that guy is a Warrior,” Mesa said. “He battled through his injury and just kept coming back. He’s got fight in him, I’m proud of Charlie.”

After Los Amigos took the lead on Smith’s first TD pass, Uni’s Trevor Pattock kicked a 31-yard field goal to trim the Lobos lead to 7-3.

University then got the ball back on the next possession when the Trojans recovered a fumble on the kickoff. Carmichael later hauled in a 7-yard TD pass from Elmer to put Uni ahead 10-7.

The Lobos regained the lead on Smith’s second TD pass late in the second quarter, but University responded when Elmer hooked up with Keith-Chavez on a 23-yard TD pass putting the Trojans ahead 17-14 at halftime.

After Los Amigos regained the lead on another Smith to Smith TD pass in the third quarter, Elmer hit Henry De Assis on a 21-yard TD pass to put University ahead 24-21.

However Los Amigos regained the lead 27-24 when Marcelo-Chamu scored on a 3-yard TD run late in the third quarter.

The Trojans answered right back with Elmer hitting Moises-Chavez on a 35-yard TD pass with seven minutes left.

But Los Amigos got the go-ahead score, made a big stop at the end.

“How we handle this week is going to determine how we progress in the playoffs,” Mesa said. “I feel like we have a great team and a great shot on going on a run and we should hold our heads up high. We fought like crazy and if we fight like that, we give ourselves a shot.”

University was without its top running back DeAndre Miller, who was limited to playing on defense due to an injury, Mesa said.

“Hopefully, he should be back OK next week,” Mesa said. “That kind of affected us in the run game tonight, so we had to do different stuff.”