El Segundo Uses Late Pass to Beat St. Monica, 28-21

The past two times these teams played, it was for the Camino Real League championship.

Saturday night, it was the nonleague finale for El Segundo High and St. Monica. But that didn’t take out any of the drama.

El Segundo, which has shifted to the San Fernando Valley League, escaped with a 28-21 victory at Culver City’s Helms Field.

“Like always, it was heart attack time,” El Segundo Coach Steve Newell said. “I told (St. Monica Coach) Angelo (Jackson) I don’t want to play him anymore. Both teams deserved it. It just depends on how many breaks you get.”

El Segundo (3-1-1) got them. It took a last-ditch drive by El Segundo quarterback Brett Newell and a miracle catch by receiver Rob O’Connor to pull off the victory.

Brett Newell, the coach’s son, was sacked on a third-down play early in the drive, but a penalty on St. Monica’s Manny Nieto gave El Segundo a first down.

With 1:22 left in the game and the score tied, 21-21, Newell threaded a pass to O’Connor on the right sideline between St. Monica defensive backs Matt Galvan and Marcellus Wiley.

Galvan and Wiley bumped into each other on the play. O’Connor came down with the ball, and ran 46 yards for the winning touchdown.

St. Monica quarterback Dion Bergeron had just gotten his team even with a 68-yard pass to slotback Nail Benjamin. Bergeron, who completed 10 of 20 passes for 228 yards, had also given St. Monica a 14-7 halftime lead with a 70-yard touchdown pass on a screen play to halfback James White.