by: Terry Monahan, North County Times

LA COSTA ---- Entering the game, Seth Hanson was an unknown factor.

Coming off a dislocated shoulder suffered four weeks ago, the La Costa Canyon High junior running back wasn't on Vista's radar screen for its CIF San Diego Section Division I quarterfinal football game against the Mavericks.

On Friday, though, Hanson showed the Panthers that LCC can run the ball when it counts the most ---- the postseason. Hanson rushed for 207 yards and caught four passes for another 111 yards to lead the top-seeded Mavericks to a 38-18 win over visiting Vista.

With their seventh consecutive win, the Mavs advanced to a home matchup in the semifinals against Carlsbad next Friday. It comes a year after they suffered a loss to eventual CIF Division II state champion Oceanside in a rainy semifinal.

"We still have a lot of guys who remember how that felt last year, and we don't want to feel that way ever again,'' said Hanson, who rushed 16 times for 207 yards, including 167 after halftime.

"We have to get it done this time,'' LCC coach Darrin Brown said. "We played out of our minds last year and we were smelling it last year until the final 90 seconds.''

Enter Hanson, who helped the Mavericks penetrate the Vista defense ---- which had not yielded a point in its last three games ---- for 321 yards.

"I was surprised,'' Vista coach Dan Williams said. "I didn't think they could do that to us, but they got up on us.

"I thought their speed was much better than we anticipated. That defensive struggle we thought we were in for never happened.

"We picked a bad night to play poorly.''

After taking a 21-10 halftime lead, the Mavs tacked on quarterback Sebastian Frausto's 6-yard run in the third quarter. After Vista quarterback David Fisher's 1-yard TD run and a two-point conversion closed the deficit to 28-18, Robert Zalud kicked a 37-yard field goal and Hanson ran for a 38-yard TD with 3:54 to go to help end Vista's four-game winning streak.

In a game that figured to be a defensive tussle, not only were 31 points scored in the first half, but La Costa Canyon made a goal-line stand with a fumble recovery in the end zone with 11 seconds left before halftime.

The Mavericks played most of the game without standout linebacker Jacob Driver, who was ejected with 3:43 left in the first quarter. He was called for throwing a punch during a pileup at the line of scrimmage.

La Costa Canyon needed five plays on the game's opening drive to grab a 7-0 lead on Frausto's 42-yard TD strike to Kenny Stills.

Vista responded with Juan Nieto's 40-yard field goal. But just 21 seconds later, Frausto lobbed a pass to Hanson, who went 69 yards untouched down the sideline to push the lead to 14-3.

Vista answered back with a 13-play drive covering 80 yards ---- Driver was ejected during the drive ---- before quarterback David Fisher hit Ian Richardson with a 3-yard TD on the first quarter's final play.

The Mavericks took advantage of a fake punt that was a yard short at the LCC 45-yard line and scored 10 plays later for a 21-10 lead with 2:35 left before halftime. Matt S. Williams covered the final 5 yards for the TD.

Vista nearly scored once more. Starting from their 20, the Panthers reached the doorstep of the end zone, but on fourth down, Jordan Alexander hurdled the line of scrimmage but fumbled the ball. Tucker Toolson pounced on it in the end zone.