Neither could the rest of his Point Loma teammates returning from the 2007 season.

The Pointers were counting down the days until this year's playoffs. They wanted a shot at avenging a loss in last year's San Diego Section Division III championship game to Cathedral Catholic.

Point Loma earned a chance at redemption yesterday with a 28-14 win against host Castle Park in a first round playoff matchup. The Pointers advance to face the No. 1 seeded Dons next week.

“We've been waiting for it since the (41-3) loss (last year) and now that we got past this barrier it's time to handle things against Cathedral,” said Rogers, who the Trojans were unable to stop from turning the corner on sweeps. “We had to get through this and get it done.”

And the Pointers (6-4-1) got through the Trojans (7-4) by taking advantage of Castle Park turnovers, a long kickoff return and using a relentless rushing attack led by Rogers (17 carries, 92 yards).

Point Loma scored 14 points in less than four minutes in the third quarter to take a 21-7 lead.

Rogers scored on a 9-yard run up the middle three plays after a Davis Callejon 67-yard kickoff return.

“We knew this wasn't going to be an easy game,” said Point Loma coach Mike Hastings. “The bottom line, we knew (Castle Park) was going to make plays. We wanted a good kickoff return, and sure enough, we got it.”

Quarterback Keegan Fitzgerald gave the Pointers the 21-7 lead after he plunged in from a yard out on a sneak after Point Loma recovered a fumble at the Trojans' 13-yard line. Fitzgerald also threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jordan Sparkman to tie the game at seven at halftime.

“A lot of our success this year has been when we've been able to take advantage of turnovers,” said Trojans coach John Senesky. “As long as we don't turn the ball over, we're in pretty good shape. We gave them the short field.”

The Pointers can also thank a poor Castle Park kicking game for that. The Trojans had three short punts – two 13-yarders and one that went 5 yards. Point Loma began two drives from outside their own 40-yard line and another from the 50.

Castle Park's points came off two Richard Cooper TD passes (of 21 and 8 yards) to Adam Tolbert and Ivan Enriquez.

Marquel Specks capped the scoring for the Pointers with an 18-yard run with less than a minute left in the game. That's when Point Loma went back to thinking about Cathedral Catholic.

“It is a great motivator because we know Cathedral is a great team,” Hastings said. “We want to play that caliber team and see what happens.”