Empire League : Trick Play Gives Los Alamitos Comeback Win Over El Dorado

Los Alamitos High School football Coach John Barnes likes to call his quarterback “Snowman,” but don’t be misled. J.T. Snow is a very hot quarterback, particularly in the company of his best friend, receiver Robby Katzaroff.

After the Griffins’ 24-21 comeback victory Friday against El Dorado to clinch the co-championship of the Empire League, Snow was so hot that steam rose off the back of his jersey and into the cold night air of Bradford Stadium.

You could measure it in his statistics as well: 14 completions in 20 attempts for 240 yards and three touchdowns. The best he saved for last.

With 1:30 left in the crucial game, Snow’s throwing hand was spurting blood from a tackle he made on goal-line defense, hooking his palm on Golden Hawk running back Rich Chamberlain’s helmet.

Snow ignored it and went on to help save the game by executing a trick pass he practices daily, but never had attempted in a game.

It was a halfback pitch-back pass from running back Pat Brown. Snow hurled the ball 53 yards to Katzaroff, who carried the Griffins to the El Dorado 2-yard line.

“It was a schoolyard play,” said El Dorado Coach Carl Sweet. “But they did a good job in executing it and we did a poor job in defending against it. We should have had two or three people back there.”

On the next play, Snow threw the ball high in the corner of the end zone and Katzaroff climbed through the air and caught it. Katzaroff accounted for all the Griffins’ scoring by catching three scoring passes, kicking a 31-yard field goal and three extra points.

The victory left Los Alamitos 6-1 in league, 9-1 overall. El Dorado is 4-3, 6-4.

Both the Griffin quarterback and receiver said the game was the highlight of their athletic careers, no small statement for a pair of all-league three-sport athletes.

“This is the biggest moment in my life,” Snow said. “ . . . That play came in very handy.” Barnes said he thought it up years ago as an assistant coach at Cypress and it had won him “probably four games in the last 10 years.”

“We were just groping, but the kids executed it,” he said. “That was a nice high school football game, wasn’t it? We’ve played a few thrillers this season.”

A thriller it was after the Golden Hawks recovered from three first-half turnovers, two of which the Griffins turned into a 10-0 lead.

The Griffins held a 17-7 lead at halftime, but El Dorado played a gutsy second half. Chamberlain scored his first touchdown on a slaloming 18-yard run with 2:47 left in the third quarter, capping a nine-play, 80-yard drive.

The Hawk defense gave its offense good field position at the Los Alamitos 37 on its next possession, and 11 plays later, Chamberlain leaned into Katzaroff and Rob Gordon at the goal line for a 2-yard touchdown. Troy Dean’s kick gave the Hawks their first lead at 21-17, but the Griffins’ big play ended the Hawks’ hopes of a second-place finish.

Pacifica and Los Alamitos finish the regular season as co-champions, with the Mariners as the league’s top seed to the CIF Southern Section playoffs because of their victory in head-to-head competition. Esperanza wound up second. El Dorado slipped into a third-place tie with Loara, probably out of the playoffs, barring a wild-card berth.