MORAGA — Campolindo kept knocking on the door until the very end Friday night, but Clayton Valley Charter stood strong and walked away in position to play for the Diablo Athletic League title next week, two years after returning to the division.

The Cougars’ methodical offense marched inside the 10-yard line four times but came away with just one touchdown against the Ugly Eagles’ staunch defense. Time expired as Campolindo attempted to rush a snap from 3 yards out, allowing the Uglies to sneak away with a 21-16 win.

“I try to have fun, but it’s just so stressful,” Clayton Valley coach Nick Tisa said after his team gave the ball back to Campolindo on its side of the 50 with 34 seconds remaining. They were forced to punt after taking a delay-of-game penalty while running down the clock, and then allowed Campo to advance the ball to their 25-yard line by roughing the passer on third-and-long.

Senior quarterback Reid Habas found Sean Parker to convert a fourth-and-5 and take them to the 7. He quickly found Parker again on first-and-goal, but the speedy senior receiver was tackled inbounds. With no timeouts left, Campolindo rushed to the line of scrimmage but snapped the ball a second too late.

Tisa leapt and the Ugly Eagles rushed the field in celebration.

“Our defense stepped up, man,” Tisa said. “We couldn’t score in the second half. I knew that’s what Campo was going to try to do in the second half — just try to play keep away. They did a good job and exposed us on some run things, but we made some adjustments and made stops in the red zone when we had to.”

The game was considerably less lopsided than Clayton Valley’s first two league wins over Las Lomas (63-7) and Miramonte (53-14). The Ugly Eagles were once deemed to be “competitive anomaly” and sent to play in the same division as De La Salle. They returned to the league last year and tied Acalanes for first place, and now, will face off against the Dons on Halloween night with the league title at stake again.

Kevin Macy’s Cougars lost to Acalanes last week, 45-28, and it left the coach questioning his team’s ability to compete with the postseason around the corner. He was more pleased with their effort this week, climbing back from a 21-9 deficit and holding Clayton Valley scoreless after halftime.

“Our kids, they fought so hard, they played to tough,” said Macy, who is winless in six matchups with Clayton Valley since 2016. “Holding their (running back), containing him the way we did was an incredible effort by our defense. … We played empty against Acalanes, and we didn’t know if that was our natural state. So the challenge was to see if we could play with a type of emotion that could tell us that we’re a viable playoff team. Our kids, they can fight.”

Jhadis Lucky, a senior who transferred in from California High, led Clayton Valley with 170 yards rushing on 36 carries. He fumbled his second handoff of the game and was tackled in the backfield three more times on his next four carries but eventually got free for multiple explosive plays.

A 23-yard run set up to score from three yards out to put the Ugly Eagles up 14-9 midway through the second quarter. They tacked on another touchdown with 4 seconds on the clock to take a 21-9 lead into intermission after taking possession with more than 5 minutes left in the half.

Lucky ran the ball seven times for 32 yards on the scoring drive before junior quarterback Mirza Mann connected with junior Jadyn Richards to cap it off from 4 yards out.

The touchdown before halftime proved to be important when Campo opened the second half with a scoring drive that ate up more than six minutes and made it a one-score game with 5:52 left in the third quarter. It was the Cougars’ only touchdown besides a first-quarter kick return that Parker took 95 yards to the house, and ended up being the final score of the game.

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The Cougars’ next drive ended at Clayton Valley’s 4-yard line after four failed tries inside the 10, and senior linebacker Ryan Clark came down with an interception the next time they got the ball back. Clark’s turnover gave the Ugly Eagles the ball with the lead and 2:31 to play.

It should have been over. Then they failed to get a snap off in time, were forced to use two timeouts to avoid being further penalized and upon getting a play off, had Lucky run out of bounds to stop the clock again. The lasting mistake, however, came from Campolindo.

Earlier in the half, Macy was forced to burn a timeout when a receiver didn’t line up correctly.

“I knew right away how bad we were going to need that,” he said.