El Camino, Golden West Duel to a Tie

In a game of offensive pluses, long runs and pinpoint passing, the final decision in Saturday night’s community college football game between Golden West and El Camino College came down to a pair of right feet.

Dominic Cefalone, injured early in the year, sick last week, came off the bench with no time on the clock to kick a 56-yard field goal that salvaged a 31-31 tie.

‘I was scared,’ said Cefalone, who missed a crucial point-after touchdown kick last week in a 38-36 loss to Fullerton College. ‘The kick felt good. When I saw the ball in the air I knew it was good.’

The kick was a personal best, erasing a 52-yard boot Cefalone had as a sophomore at West Torrance High School and it also erased a night of powerful offensive performances, including the running of Rustler back Blaise Bryant. At Golden West they’re still not sure how Bryant gets his yardage. Bryant, a sophomore out of Cypress, gained 277 yards on 39 carries. And he is running behind a banged up offensive line minus four starters.

But in the Mission Conference game at LeBard Stadium in Costa Mesa, it didn’t seem to matter when Bryant had the ball.

‘Excellent. We couldn’t wrap him up,’ said El Camino Coach John Featherstone about the effort.

“We learned a lesson tonight,” continued Featherstone. “We took a team too lightly that we shouldn’t have. We were lucky to get out of here with a tie.”

Cefalone’s heroics also overshadowed a passing duel between El Camino’s Scott Yessner and Rustler Joe Napoli. Napoli finished with 235 yards in the air. Yessner had 205 and a touchdown. Napoli completed his first nine passes. Yessner, who did not take to the air early, hit his first four.

Yet it all came down to Cefalone, who spotted his tying kick at the Rustler 46. Three seconds earlier Golden West place kicker KC Satterthwaite had given the Rustlers what seemed to be the win with a 33-yard boot.

But a personal foul for face-masking on the ensuing kickoff gave El Camino it’s last gasp and Cefalone drilled the field goal with about five to 7 yards to spare.

Golden West took the opening kick-off and marched 80 yards in nine plays to take a 7-0 lead. Bryant got 26 yards on the drive and Napoli completed four passes for 49 yards. Fullback Lee Miller scored on a three-yard run with 3:36 gone.

El Camino retaliated with an easy drive of its own. The Warriors started at their own 25 and took just six plays to score, with fullback Neil Tuihalamaka bouncing off three tacklers at the Rustler 17-yard line, then scampering up the Warrior sideline for the touchdown at the 7:40 mark. A screen pass by Yessner to tight end Brett Austin gained 31 yards and set up Tuihalamaka’s run.

Golden West took the lead back, 14-7, marching another 80 yards on its next possession. Bryant capped the eight-play drive with a three-yard run with 4:26 still remaining in the first period. Bryant had 35 yards in the drive, but the big play that set up his touchdown run was a 27-yard pass by Napoli to flanker Darrell Payne.