On a chilly night at Hueneme High, in a game dubbed "The Frontier League championship game," Cierre Wood conjured the spirit of Ronny Jenkins.

Wood ran for 370 yards, six touchdowns and two two-point conversions, including the game-winning score from 61 yards out with 43 seconds to play, as Santa Clara High came from behind to beat Bishop Diego, 42-41, on Friday night.

"We would not be denied," said Wood.

On the night the junior broke Santa Clara's single-game and career rushing records, Wood carried the ball just 23 times, had a 54-yard reception, completed an 8-yard pass, punted twice and held Isaiah Miramonte's game-winning extra point.

"He would not be denied," said Bishop Diego coach Tom Crawford.

It is the top rushing performance in county history by a back not named Jenkins, Kackert, Ebell or Keiaho.

Only 10 performances, including Jenkins' then-national record 619 yards on 30 carries for Hueneme against Rio Mesa High in 1995, piled on more yardage. None came on 23 or less carries.

Only Kackert (48) and Jenkins (46) scored more than the 40 points he tallied.

Wood has rushed for 1,244 yards and 17 touchdowns through seven games, averging 12.8 yards per carry.

"He takes your breath away every time he touches the ball," said Crawford, who elected to kick onsides and pooch kicks instead of putting the ball in Woods' hands each kickoff.

Wood rushed for 248 yards and four touchdowns as Santa Clara (5-1-1, 2-0) built a 28-14 lead with 2:38 left in the second quarter.

At one point in the second quarter, he had scored touchdowns of 34, 24 and 67 yards and two conversions on five consecutive carries.

"It's amazing, thrilling, the best I've ever seen," said Santa Clara linebacker Daniel Garcia.

It was almost all for naught, as Bishop Diego (7-2, 2-1) outscored the Saints 27-0 over a 21-minute span from the second to fourth quarter.

"We were down," said Garcia, "but we found our feet."

Wood used his feet to drive through three Cardinals on fourth-and-goal from the Bishop Diego 6, pulling Santa Clara within 45 with 5:26 to play.

The Saints got the ball back two minutes later on their own 8. Seven plays later, they were on their own 39 with 57 seconds left when Wood exploded off right tackle Tom Torres' outside shoulder, cut back across the grain into space and got one last block inside the Cardinals 5.

"We never stopped playing," said Wood. "You have to beat us to the final whistle."

Bishop Diego scored three touchdowns in little more than four minutes in the third quarter to build a 41-28 lead. Aaron Skinner had a 14-yard run, a 71-yard screen pass from Christian Winnewisser and Shane McCarthy returned a fumble 45 yards for a touchdown.

"This was a good experience for the whole team," said a heartbroken Winnewisser, who completed 16 of 32 passes for 272 yards and four touchdowns.

Sophomore fullback Svondo Bradley carried 14 times for 88 yards for Santa Clara, who survived 19 penalties for 166 yards, including a flurry of illegal procedure and pass interference penalties.

"There was something that was different about this game," said Crawford. "I can't say enough about how hard both teams played.

"One team was going to heartbroken, one team was going to be exhilarated."

"Wood just proved why he's a state player of the year."

Bishop Diego has already seen enough of Wood.

Last year, he ran the wrong route, but was in the right place at the right time to pull in a deflected Stephen Raab pass on fourth-and-two for a 22-yard game-winning touchdown with 2:08 left in the Saints' 10-6 win.

"It wasn't really lucky," said Wood. "I just happened to be in the right spot."

The play kept the Cardinals from an unbeaten Frontier League season.

Afterwards, Crawford told friends he had two more years of nightmares of Wood to survive.

One down, one to go.

Santa Clara 42, Bishop Diego 41

Frontier League

Bishop Diego 0 21 20 0—41

Santa Clara 6 22 0 7—42

First quarter

SC — Wood 72 run (pass failed), 5:20.

Second quarter

BD — Kjar 21 pass from Winnewisser (Horner kick), 11:24.

SC — Wood 34 run (run failed), 9:06.

BD — Gonzalez 37 pass from Winnewisser (Horner kick), 7:07.

SC — Wood 24 run (Wood run), 5:04.

SC — Wood 67 run (Wood run), 2:38.

BD — Kjar 6 pass from Winnewisser (Horner kick), 2:02.

Third quarter

BD — Skinner 14 run (Horner kick), 8:37.

BD — McCarthy 45 fumble return (Horner kick), 7:41.

BD — Skinner 71 pass from Winnewisser (kick failed), 11:24.

Fourth quarter

SC — Wood 6 run (Miramontes kick), 5:26.

SC — Wood 61 run (Miramontes kick), 0:43.

Teams Stats: BD SC

First downs 14 15

Rushes-yards 21-12 46-464

Passing yards 272 62

Comp-Att-Int 16-32-1 2-5-1

Sacks-yards lost 4-36 2-13

Punts-avg. 3-29.3 4.0

Fumbles-lost 2-0 4-0

Penalties-yards 7-50 19-166

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Bishop Diego: Aaron Skinner 13, Orosco 4-10, Escamillia 1-5, Winnewisser 4-(—36). Santa Clara: Wood 23-370, Bradley 14-88, Nelson 3-9, Contreras 1-8, Vines 5-(—11).

PASSING — Bishop Diego: Winnewisser 16-32-1-272. Santa Clara: Vines -1-54, Wood 1-1-0-8.

RECEIVING — Bishop Diego: Gonzalez 5-96, Kjar 5-51, Orosco 3-58, Skinner 2-67, McCarthy 1-9. Santa Clara: Wood 1-56, Vines 1-8.

MISSED FIELD GOALS — None.

TEAM RECORDS — Bishop Diego 7-2, 2-1; Santa Clara 5-1-1, 2-0.