Granada Hills Overcomes Slow Start, 26-10 : Prep football: Quarterback Bryan Martin gets offense going with two touchdown passes in win over Lynwood.

First play of the year, first play of the decade. Granada Hills High quarterback Bryan Martin lines up in shotgun formation, ready to embark on his senior season.

He takes the snap, tosses a shovel pass to Alonzo Finney and it goes for . . . a six-yard loss.

So much for glorious beginnings.

From that point, however, Martin and the visiting Highlanders were close to perfect in a 26-10 defeat of Lynwood (1-1) in an intersectional game on Friday night.

Martin (6-foot-2, 180 pounds) completed 17 of 22 passes for 166 yards and two touchdowns and connected on 10 in a row at one stretch.

“That’s good,” Highlander co-Coach Darryl Stroh said. “We’ll take that.”

Lynwood took it, and quite often. The Highlanders jumped to a 19-7 lead in the first half, then held off a Lynwood run in the fourth quarter.

Trailing, 19-10, in the fourth quarter, Lynwood drove 73 yards to the Highlander two with 5:36 remaining. On a fourth-and-goal play from the two, Lymon Allen was stuffed for no gain and the Highlanders took over.

On the next play, fullback Brett Washington, who finished with 145 yards in 14 carries, broke free up the middle and raced to the Lynwood 10, where he was finally dragged down from behind.

Was he panting? Something like that.

“It was my pants,” Washington said. “These are XXL and I wear an XL. I couldn’t get my legs up.”

It was XL-lent, any way you look at it. Martin finished the drive by hitting Alonzo Finney on an eight-yard slant-in to give Granada Hills its final margin of victory.

The Granada Hills defense was superb, limiting Lynwood to just 234 yards, all on the ground. Lynwood quarterback Eugene Jackson was zero-for-six passing and had one pass intercepted.

In the first half alone, Martin completed 13 of 15 for 138 yards, and one ball was dropped. Martin connected with seven different receivers and at one stage had seven consecutive completions.

The Highlanders scored on their opening possession, moving 75 yards in 17 plays. Using about everything in the playbook, it was pure textbook. Granada Hills twice converted fourth-down plays and Washington finished it off with a one-yard run inside.

Lynwood, which entered the game ranked eighth in the Southern Section Division II poll, tied the score with 7:22 left in the first half. Brian Durden ran 64 yards to the Highlander four on a misdirection handoff inside. Durden scored three plays later from one yard to make it 7-7. Durden accounted for 64 of Lynwood’s 90 yards in the half on his breakaway.

Granada Hills took a 13-7 lead on its next possession when Martin hit Felix Shin on a 17-yard slant-in with 4:19 left in the half.

Granada Hills cornerback Robert Haywood set up the Highlanders’ final score of the half when he intercepted an underthrown pass by Jackson at the Granada Hills 40. Derrick Stewart gave Granada Hills a 19-7 lead six plays later when he scored on a five-yard run up the middle.