Wilson’s Tailback Takes Control to Run Past Servite

Maybe it’s still too early for football.

At the end of the first half Friday night at Cerritos College, it looked as if the players’ minds were on baseball--after two quarters, the score was Servite High School 3 and visiting Long Beach Wilson 2.

Fittingly, it was the best player on the field--Wilson tailback Mike Steward--who took control of the game in the second half. Steward’s run on a fourth-quarter fake punt gave Wilson a 14-12 victory in front of 1,100.

“Steward is a very good football player,” Servite Coach Larry Toner said afterward. “He was like a man among boys out there tonight.”

Steward helped cut into a 10-2 Servite lead on the first play of the final quarter when he took a handoff to the left, cut back across midfield, then sprinted past the Servite defense for a 25-yard touchdown run.

The next Wilson drive stalled at the Servite 36-yard line. But with 5 minutes 11 seconds left, on fourth and 16, Wilson Coach John Brennan crossed everyone up when he called for the fake punt.

The ball was snapped to the up-back, Brian Poyer, who handed off to Steward on a reverse. Steward did the rest, accelerating down the left sideline and outrunning Servite’s Billy Ray to the goal line.

“We’re still learning,” Toner said. “When we get snookered like that on a fake punt on fourth down, we’ve obviously got some coaching errors to take care of.”

Especially tailback Chandler Robbins (107 yards on 13 carries), who broke a series of tackles to bust loose along the left sideline for a 57-yard third-quarter gain. That set up Mike Wallock’s two-yard touchdown dive on the next play, giving Servite the 10-2 lead.