Football: Cathedral wins Division II state bowl

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San Diego Cathedral held off Stockton St. Mary’s, 37-34, to win the Division II state bowl championship in the second game of Saturday’s triple-header at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

Cathedral (14-0) took a three-point lead on Tyler Gaffney’s 51-yard touchdown run with 4:45 remaining, but St. Mary’s drove to the Dons’ 33-yard line before quarterback Cody Vaz threw incomplete on fourth-and-four with less than two minutes left.

Cathedral took over on downs and Parker Hipp completed a third-down pass near midfield to move the chains, then took a knee to kill the final 20 seconds off the clock.

Chad West’s 96-yard kickoff return gave the Rams (12-3) a short-lived 34-30 lead with 5:54 left.

Gaffney rushed for 329 yards and five touchdowns, both state bowl records. Vaz also set a state bowl mark by throwing for 336 yards, including four touchdowns.

With Cathedral’s victory, Southern California improved to 4-0 in this year’s bowls, with only the Open Division game between Long Beach Poly and Sacramento Grant remaining. That one is set to start just after 8 p.m.

-- Steve Galluzzo