Cypress gets off the mat with help of its defense

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In the first half of the Southern Division final Friday night at Cerritos College, Pacifica looked unstoppable. The only way they could be stopped was if they stopped themselves, which they did when they fumbled on their own side of the 50. That turnover lead to a touchdown by Cypress.

Other than that turnover, Pacifica quarterback Raymond Huizar was picking apart the Cypress defense. That’s until near the end the of the first half, when a sack forced the Mariners to punt the ball. At first it just seemed like just another sack by Cody Williams, but for Cypress Coach Ray Fenton, it was much more.

‘We got a little spark,’ he said of the play. ‘It was like the ‘Rocky’ movie, where he punched the Russian in the eye and he bled. ‘He’s not a machine!’ ... It gave us a little bit of hope.’

Just like Rocky Balboa carried that momentum change to a KO of Ivan Drago in the 15th round, Cypress carried that spark into the second half and rallied for a 36-30 victory.

In the second half, the Centurions got to Huizar with more consistency. Late in the game, Spencer Whilhelm‘s stripped Huizar of the ball, resulting in an 85-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Ryan Saumur to put Cypress ahead for the first time, by the game’s final score.

The defense then came up big again on Pacifica’s ensuing drive as it stopped Huizar just short of the goal line with no time left to preserve the victory.

‘That’s what we live for,’ said Saumur, who was one of three players in the last tackle of the game. ‘That’s what out team lives for, goal-line stops.’

-- Jaime Cardenas

-- Image from www.amazon.com