Garrison, St. Francis football roll by Harvard-Westlake
NORTH HOLLYWOOD — Max Garrison isn’t afraid of the situation or the responsibilities given to him.
It can be intimidating for most freshman to have such a large workload, but Garrison has impressed at every turn at running back for the St. Francis High football team.
Garrison finished with five first-half touchdowns, including four rushing scores, to propel visiting St. Francis to a 48-27 nonleague win against Harvard-Westlake on Friday.
“You try to fill in when you can and just take advantage of the situation,” said Garrison, who is filling in for injured running back Kevin Armstead. “You see the holes and try to make something out of it.
“I’m enjoying helping the team out and the older players have taken me under their wing and are showing me what it’s like to play at the varsity level.”
Garrison has scored seven touchdowns in the last two games for St. Francis (3-2).
Garrison, who finished with 165 yards rushing in 16 carries, gave the Golden Knights a 7-0 lead on a 28-yard run with 4:16 left in the first quarter.
He followed that up with a one-yard run to extend the lead to 14-0 with 1:49 remaining in the opening quarter.
Harvard-Westlake (4-2) sliced the deficit to 14-7 on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Marshall Howe to Chase Harleston with four seconds to go in the first quarter.
Garrison gave St. Francis a 21-7 lead on a 12-yard run with 6:38 to go in the second quarter.
A 10-yard touchdown run by Harvard-Westlake’s Sultan Daniels, who finished with 256 yards rushing in 24 carries, trimmed St. Francis’ lead to 21-14 about a minute later.
Daniels then scored on a 20-yard run to pull the Wolverines to within 21-20 with 5:22 left in the second quarter.
St. Francis, which improved to 4-1 in its last five meetings against Harvard-Westlake, saw Garrison break free for a 63-yard touchdown run to make it 28-20 with 4:24 to go in the first half. Garrison closed out the first-half scoring when he caught a seven-yard touchdown pass from Darius Perrantes (19 of 25 for 250 yards and three touchdowns) with 17 seconds left to make it 35-20.
“Max has continued to do great things,” said St. Francis coach Jim Bonds, who led St. Francis to the CIF Southern Section Division III title game and a second-place finish in the Angelus League last season. “He’s a special kid and he’s just got great vision.
“We’re happy with the win and this is a tough place to play.”
Perrantes, the reigning All-Area Football Player of the Year, tossed a two-yard touchdown pass to Tanner Tomko, who caught seven passes for 185 yards, on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 42-20.
A 76-yard touchdown run from Daniels cut the lead to 42-27 with 11:33 remaining.
St. Francis closed out the scoring on a 59-yard touchdown pass from Perrantes to Tomko with 10:20 left and pick up its first road victory of the season.
St. Francis and Harvard-Westlake competed in the Angelus League from 2014-2017.
St. Francis will take on Mayfair in a nonleague road contest at 7 p.m. Friday.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
