Saugus Makes Hart Work for 21-15 Win

In the Santa Clarita Valley, there only used to be two high school football teams to be reckoned with. Canyon and Hart, always the bullies on the block, used Saugus for a launching pad to their next opponents.

Saugus was a forgettable 0-10 last season. This year? Forget 0-10. Saugus is as tough as either of the other teams in the football factory to the north. Well, almost as good.

Friday night at College of the Canyons, Saugus quarterback Jared Snyder and running back Lamark Allen--who had scored 42 points in the first three games of the season--kept the gutty little Centurions in the game for the duration.

In the end, though, it was another guy named Allen who made the difference as Hart held off Saugus, 21-15, in front of about 6,000 fans.

Brian Allen, a 6-4 junior tight end, caught 4 passes for 82 yards and 2 touchdowns. Allen, who also plays basketball at Hart, hauled in a 19-yard lob from quarterback Darren Renfro with nine minutes to play to wipe out a 15-13 Saugus lead.

“He’s a heck of a player, too, huh?” Hart Coach Rick Scott cracked. “That was the old alley-oop pass. We’re reviving it. We just throw it up there and let Allen rebound it.”

Allen leaped above three Saugus defenders in the left side of the end zone. Defensive backs Brandon King, Devin Franchino and Ray Torres couldn’t quite bang the boards as hard as Allen.

The jump ball gave Hart, ranked No. 4 in The Times Valley poll, the only jump start it would need.

The other Allen did pretty well for himself, too. The 5-11 Saugus senior had 83 yards rushing and an additional 58 yards on two catches, but it wasn’t enough to give Saugus its first win over Hart since 1981.

“We played an outstanding ball team that deserves their ranking,” Saugus Coach Dick Flaherty said. “We played very well. The way it ended was tough, though.”

After failing to score on its next possession, Saugus got the ball for the last time with 1:29 left. Snyder hit a wide-open Chad Keene at the Saugus 38-yard line. Keene was ruled to have lined up in an illegal formation, however, and Saugus lost an 18-yard gain and the down. On third-and-30 from the Saugus 10, Snyder threw a desperation pass that was picked off at mid-field by Jamie Carroll.

Renfro finished with 242 yards and two touchdowns--both to Allen. He threw 36 passes, completing 26 with just 1 interception.

“Is that all he had?” Scott said, jokingly. “That’s nothing. He’s had 260 before.”

Renfro threw an astonishing 26 passes in the first half alone, completing 18 for 168 yards and a touchdown.

Hart’s first score came in the first quarter, after a Jeff Parker interception of a Snyder pass. Carroll blasted through from the three, capping a four-play, 20-yard drive.

Hart (3-0-1) squandered a scoring opportunity in the first quarter when Snyder whiffed a punt while standing on his own 15. Hart’s Jeff Trogan recovered at the 13, but Hart failed to score when Rick Kempf missed a 26-yard field goal to the right.

Saugus (2-2) scored on its next possession, driving 80 yards after the Kempf miss. Snyder made the key play when he scrambled 14 yards to the Hart 44. Five plays later, Lamark Allen scored from 19 yards out on a draw play. Saugus took an 8-7 lead when holder Andrew McConnell flagged down a bad snap, scrambled to his right, and found Keene open in the right corner of the end zone.

Hart, running the Saugus defense ragged with a hurry-up offense, scored with 1:19 left in the half when Renfro connected with Brian Allen for a 34-yard touchdown and a 13-8 lead. Allen beat Franchino, making the catch in the left corner of the end zone. Hart’s attempt for a two-point conversion failed when Renfro threw incomplete.