Mighty Casey Helps Sylmar Strike Down North Hollywood

The Chip Grant Show was upstaged Friday night at North Hollywood High.

In a battle of the backs, Sylmar sophomore Jerome Casey outrushed and outshined the diminutive Grant to lead the Spartans to a 43-21 victory over North Hollywood in the Pac 8 League opener for both schools. In a remarkable performance, the two running backs combined for 507 yards rushing.

Casey rushed for touchdowns on jaunts of 13, 37 and 58 yards, and caught a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Rick Negrete.

Casey finished with 257 yards on 18 carries and piled up 300 yards in total offense.

Negrete completed only 4 of 7 passes for 65 yards, but three of his completions went for touchdowns.

Grant had a big night, rushing for 250 yards on 24 carries and scoring twice--one on an 80-yard run--but it wasn’t enough to stop the Huskies from slipping to 2-1 for the season. Grant, only 5-6 and 150 pounds, has rushed for 823 yards and 13 touchdowns in 3 games.

Sylmar (2-0-1) led, 20-14, at the half after a one-yard touchdown pass from Negrete to David Armstrong just before intermission. The Spartans increased their advantage to 28-14 on Casey’s 58-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. The lead reached 35-21 after Casey caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from Negrete later in the quarter.