Although the Bearcats’ defense couldn’t slow down South San Francisco on Friday, it forced four turnovers and made some crucial plays down the stretch in the Bearcats’ 34-32 Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division win.

The victory kept San Mateo’s division championship aspirations alive as it heads into the Little Big Game next week versus Burlingame. However, Bearcats (3-1 PAL Ocean, 6-3 overall) coach Jeff Scheller knows his team will have to shore up a number of issues if it expects to beat the Panthers.

“We have to fix a lot of things if we want to even think about having a chance to beat Burlingame,” he said. “I’m speechless. Absolutely (I feel fortunate) that we won this game. South City makes you pay for your mistakes, and we made a lot of mistakes today.”

But the Warriors (2-3, 5-4) made just as many. The final six minutes encapsulated all you needed to know about this game — it was a wild one, filled with a number of dramatic swing changes. There were four turnovers — three by South San Francisco — in the final six minutes of play.

The Bearcats didn’t seal the outcome until Danny Vargas intercepted an Eddie Sanchez pass at his own 30-yard line with 23.6 seconds remaining. Moments before that, the Warriors had recovered their onside kick after scoring a touchdown when Sanchez connected with Juan Velasco for a 49-yard play.

But South City’s two-point conversion went nowhere. Sanchez went back to pass but was sacked on the play, accounting for the final margin. The Warriors had to go for two because of a failed two-point conversion attempt with 8:14 left.

South City scored on Rudy Galli’s 6-yard TD run to get to within 27-26, but coach Frank Moro elected to go for two. However, Galli was stuffed on the play. It was a gut-wrenching loss for the Warriors, who needed to win out in order to have a chance at a Central Coast Section playoff berth.

“I feel bad for the guys because I really wanted to get a win for them,” Moro said. “They’ll probably look back at this game 20 years from now and be proud of the way they played, but right now it hurts. My philosophy in the fourth quarter is you shoot to win it. I compare it to having a runner at third base late in the game and I’m not going to leave that runner on the basepaths. When you have an opportunity to win, you go for it.”

The Warriors had no problems moving the ball at will, totaling 395 yards of total offense. But they were 0 for 4 on fourth-down attempts inside San Mateo territory. One drive stalled when the Bearcats’ John Niupalau leapt high for one of his two interceptions. Niupalau had a third pick negated by a penalty. San Mateo’s biggest play on defense came when George Naufahu scooped up a South City fumble and returned it 25 yards for a score, making it 34-26 with 1:38 to go.

For San Mateo, this game was all about answering challenges. The Bearcats started fast — David Rango busted loose for a 73-yard TD run for the game’s first score and Niupalau followed with a 45-yard TD in the first quarter — only to see South City answer with two straight TDs by taking control of the line of scrimmage. Just when it looked like the Warriors had total command, the Bearcats started to reassert themselves physically in the trenches. They opened up huge holes for their run game and made enough happen defensively to come out on top from the third quarter on.

“We challenged our offensive line (at halftime) because they were getting off the ball really well, but then I think they got complacent,” Scheller said. “Our guys had another thing coming if they thought South City was going to let them run all over them.”

San Mateo won despite completing zero passes. To say the Bearcats’ passing game was ineffective would be doing an injustice to the word ineffective. Mitch Labbie was 0 for 4, but it didn’t really matter because San Mateo ran hog wild, finishing with 462 yards on 49 carries.

Naufahu led the way with 196 yards on 16 carries, including runs of 48 and 70 yards in the second half. Rango finished with 145 yards on 18 carries. South City was balanced offensively, running for 201 yards and passing for 194 more. Galli had 106 yards on 19 carries and Sanchez was 11 of 25 with two TDs and three interceptions. Greg Bildhauer had three receptions for 97 yards.