Decisions by Lewis Help Grant Rout Reseda

Grant High discovered Friday that it has two football playbooks. One the coaches and the players know, and another that’s safely kept in Marlowe Lewis’ back pocket.

Lewis, City Section football’s answer to Arsenio Hall, improvised on two scoring drives to lead the Lancers to a 40-13 victory over Reseda in a Valley Pac-8 Conference game at Grant.

Lewis completed five of nine passes for 119 yards and a touchdown and carried nine times for 72 yards. He scored on runs of one and 60 yards and recovered a fumble for a 38-yard touchdown.

“We didn’t want a repeat of last year’s game,” Lewis said. “It was sickening. They had four running backs with 100 yards. We wanted revenge.”

Besides avenging last’s year 46-6 loss to Reseda (2-1-1, 1-1), the victory created a laundry list of firsts.

Grant, off to its best start since the school opened in 1962, improved its record to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

The Lancers also beat Reseda for the first time since a 28-13 win in 1979. It’s the first victory over the Regents for fifth-year Coach Bill Foster.

It was also the first time Reseda, a perennial defensive power in the Valley, gave up 40 points or more since a 40-21 loss to Locke in 1977.

And it all began when the senior quarterback became creative with the team’s play selection during the first drive of the second half and the score tied, 13-13.

Lewis, without his coach’s knowledge, called a fake punt on a fourth-and-four play on Grant’s 24. Lewis, the up back, took the snap and went 17 yards for a first down.

“The fake punt. That was the turning point,” Foster said. “I don’t know who suggested it, but if it happens again, I’ll kill him.”

On the next play, Lewis improvised again and ran a quarterback sneak for a 60-yard touchdown when he noticed there wasn’t a defender lined up in front of the center.

“My center didn’t even know I was going to run,” Lewis said. “I saw the opening and I took off. I didn’t even have time to call an audible.”

Suddenly, Reseda, a team that ran and passed with relative ease in the first half, had trouble holding on to the ball. The Regents had three turnovers in the second half that resulted in two Grant touchdowns.

Early in the third quarter, cornerback Tony Johnson pounded Reseda quarterback Andre Jackson and linebacker Eric Taylor recovered the fumble and ran to the Regents’ 25. Two plays later, Shawn Booker scored from the 29 to give Grant a 27-13 lead. Booker, who also scored on an eight-yard run, had 56 yards in 11 carries.

The Lancers extended the margin to 33-13 when Lewis threw a hitch pass to Josh Kesselman for a 37-yard scoring play with 9:01 remaining. Two plays later, Lewis recovered a fumble and returned it 38 yards for the Lancers’ final score with 7:39 left.

Early on, it appeared like Reseda would repeat last’s year one-sided victory.

On the opening drive, the Regents ran five consecutive times before Jackson threw a long pass to Chris Kates for a 39-yard touchdown. Jackson completed eight of 13 passes for 165 yards. He was also the team’s leading rusher with 113 yards in 19 carries.

The Regents scored again on Joey Tushnet’s two-yard run to take a 13-0 lead with 6:52 left in the half.