PREP ROUNDUP : Palos Verdes Racks Up Another Come-From-Behind ‘Miracle’

Palos Verdes wide receiver Richard Lee is not likely to forget the first catch of his high school football career.

Neither are any of his teammates, for that matter.

In fact, if Lee never catches another pass, he will always be remembered for his juggling, 28-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Blake Anderson with nine seconds left Friday that gave the Sea Kings a 23-21 victory over Torrance at Palos Verdes.

The come-from-behind triumph--Palos Verdes trailed, 21-10, after Torrance scored with 4:28 left to play--was the latest in a series of “miracle” wins the Sea Kings have pulled off on their home field in the 1980s.

“It’s this Palos Verdes field,” said Lee, still beaming after making his game-winning grab. “Every year we have a game like this.”

Coach Bill Judy has grown accustomed to the heart-stopping finishes. It’s gotten to the point where he envisions them before they happen.

“I had a dream about (Lee) catching a touchdown pass,” he said. “But it was in the other end zone.”

Close enough, coach. Judy was asked if he envisioned Palos Verdes winning next Friday’s game against unbeaten Leuzinger. He smiled and replied, “I hope we play a solid ball game.”

In other words, Judy wants the Sea Kings to put together a 48-minute effort rather than have to rely on the two-minute drill.

But Palos Verdes does seem to use the fourth quarter as a wake-up call. In last week’s 35-34 win over Santa Monica, the Sea Kings rallied from a 34-13 deficit with three unanswered touchdowns in the final quarter. As a result of their last-minute heroics, they are 2-1 in the Bay League and tied for third place with Beverly Hills.

Palos Verdes (5-1 overall) had several stars Friday.

One of the brightest was Anderson. The senior quarterback, who two weeks ago could barely raise his right arm because of a shoulder bruise, enjoyed his finest passing game by completing 10 of 21 attempts for 175 yards. He was 4 of 8 for 103 yards on the Sea Kings’ last two scoring drives.

And, needless to say, all four completions were huge:

* Faced with fourth-and-10 from the Torrance 49, Anderson passed 32 yards to receiver Mark Antrobius, who made a leaping catch over cornerback Carlos Hilliard with 2:13 left to keep the Sea Kings’ hopes alive.

* On the next play, Anderson floated a perfect touch pass in the left flat to running back George Felactu for a 16-yard gain that gave Palos Verdes first-and-goal at the 1. Running back Bill Smiley punched it into the end zone on the next play to cut the deficit to 21-16 with 1:53 left.

* Taking over at the Palos Verdes 45 after forcing Torrance to punt, Anderson passed 27 yards to the left side of the field to receiver John Miller, who made a leaping, twisting catch near the sideline with 18 seconds remaining.

* Then, on a play they’ll be talking about at Palos Verdes for some time, Anderson fired a pass toward the right sideline for Lee. A diving Hilliard missed the ball, and Lee juggled it momentarily before turning into the end zone and into the arms of his jubilant teammates.

“I don’t know if (Hilliard) tipped it or not,” Lee said. “It just happened.”

Said Anderson: “When I saw Rich catch it, I just went crazy.”

On the other side of the field, Torrance Coach Rich Busia appeared to be going a little crazy from the frustration of another close loss. The Tartars (2-4, 0-3) have lost four consecutive games by a total of 14 points.

“I just don’t feel like talking right now,” he said.

Who could blame him? At Palos Verdes, the visiting team is frequently left speechless.

Slowly but surely, South Torrance is developing into a fine football team under first-year Coach Don Morrow.

The Spartans, who lost their first three games, made it three wins in a row Friday night with a 20-17, come-from-behind victory over previously unbeaten Culver City at South.

“We started off kind of slow,” Morrow said. “But the last three weeks have been great.”

By improving to 3-0 in the Ocean League, South remained in a first-place tie with West Torrance (5-1, 3-0), the preseason favorite. League coaches picked South to finish fourth.

But when the Spartans and West meet Oct. 27 at South, it could be for the Ocean championship.

“It’s exciting,” Morrow said. “I thought we had a pretty decent football team. To start off the way we did and (then) win three in a row is really a tribute to the kids.”

Quarterback Kevin Fitzpatrick engineered South’s comeback from a 17-7 halftime deficit by running for a three-yard touchdown and passing to wide receiver Tom Adams for a 12-yard score in the third quarter. Fitzpatrick also had a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and intercepted a pass.

“Kevin played great,” Morrow said. “He’s invaluable to the team.”

Deftly running the option, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Fitzpatrick rushed for 99 yards on 22 carries and completed enough passes (4 of 6, 79 yards) to keep Culver City off balance. South finished with 217 yards rushing.

Another key was the play of the Spartan defense in the second half. After Culver City quarterback Troy Dunlap picked apart the South secondary in the first half (11 of 20, 142 yards, 1 touchdown), he completed just one of six attempts for 20 yards and was intercepted once in the second half.

“We stepped up our pass rush in the second half,” Morrow said. “And the kids played a lot better pass defense. We were running out of our areas in the first half.”

Morrow said much of the credit for South’s successful option attack goes to assistant coach Chris Forseth, who learned the offense as a lineman for the Air Force Academy. Forseth played with current Air Force quarterback Dee Dowis, a Heisman Trophy candidate and perhaps the best option quarterback in the country.

“He knows the wishbone and he’s helped us put in that type of offense,” Morrow said of Forseth. “He’s been an inspiration to our kids.”

Carson defensive back Clayvand Thomas, in only his second game of the year, tied a school record Friday night by returning an interception 30 yards for a touchdown in the Colts’ 40-6 Southern-Pacific Conference win over Gardena at Veterans Stadium.

Thomas has three touchdowns, tying him with former Carson linebacker So’o Maulupe (1971) for the most touchdowns scored by a defensive player in a season. Thomas, a junior, returned an interception and a fumble for touchdowns last week against Washington in his first game back from a knee injury.

Another Colt zeroing in on a school record is quarterback Armin Youngblood. With three touchdown passes Friday, the senior now has 12 TD tosses in four games, putting him on a pace to break the record of 24 set by Doug Ellison in 12 games in 1974.

Look for Carson (3-1) to continue rewriting the record book in the coming weeks. Because of the overall weakness of the conference this year, the Colts and Banning (4-0-1) probably won’t be tested until they meet in their annual showdown Nov. 9 at Veterans Stadium.

In other games:

The Serra juggernaut keeps rolling along. The Cavaliers opened the Camino Real League with a 46-0 victory over St. Bernard and have now outscored their opponents, 224-33. Ranked No. 2 in Southern Section Division II, Serra improved to 6-0 and running back Dennis Gerard increased his area-leading touchdown total to 15 with four scoring runs against St. Bernard, including one covering 63 yards . . . With 251 yards rushing in a 44-8 Bay League win over Inglewood, Rolling Hills tailback Robert Coulter became the first South Bay player to surpass 1,000 yards this season. He has 1,070. Coulter also scored five touchdowns, giving him 12 on the year . . . Hawthorne maintained its half-game lead in the Bay League with a decisive 32-7 victory over Santa Monica. Running backs Itchy Delpino and Armando Fernandez each scored two touchdowns for the Cougars, who improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in league play entering next week’s game at home against Rolling Hills (4-1-1, 1-1-1)