Sunny Hills Strikes Late to Win : Division VI: Lancers go 80 yards, getting touchdown with 29 seconds left to beat Tustin, 7-3.

The Sunny Hills High School football team, written off early in the season, climbed out of one more hole Friday night. When the Lancers got to the top, there was nothing left to prove.

With a no-nonsense defense and just enough offense, Sunny Hills defeated Tustin, 7-3, in the Southern Section Division VI championship game at Orange Coast College. It was the ninth consecutive victory for the Lancers, who were 2-3 after five games.

They waited until almost the last moment to get it, but a one-yard run by Kenny Overby with 29 seconds remaining to play gave them the title.

Overby’s run capped an 80-yard drive that began with 6 minutes 41 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Lancers had been limited to 66 total yards and four first downs until the final drive, but mustered enough offensive resolve for one all-or-nothing drive.

“This team built a lot of character early in the year,” Lancer Coach Tim Devaney said. “We played a lot of good teams and we lost some tough games. But these guys were like pit bulls.”

The most nasty of the bunch was on defense, which kept Tustin out of the end zone for the first time this season. Sunny Hills (11-3) was pushed around most of the game, but was tenacious when it had to be.

It was typical of the season for Sunny Hills. It has been the defense that has propped up the Lancers earlier in the season, giving the offense time to mature. And Friday was more of the same.

The Lancers forced two mistakes, an interception by Bobby Sunderland and a fumble recovery by Clayton Lau. Both stopped Tustin drives in Sunny Hills territory.

“It’s beyond my comprehension that we were kept out of the end zone,” Tustin Coach Marion Ancich said. “We did what we always do, what we do best. They stopped us.”

The Tillers had not lost since the quarterfinals of the 1989 playoffs, when they were ousted, 21-0, by Sunny Hills. Tustin, which had not played in a title game since 1948, had been the division’s No. 1-ranked team from the start of the season.

Ron Goods and Visko Ancich were considered one of the best running back tandems in Orange County. Both gained more than 1,000 yards this season. But the Lancers defense made every yard difficult. Goods left the game in the second quarter with a severely sprained ankle. He tried to play in the third quarter, but was obviously hurting.

That left the offense up to Ancich, who gained 136 yards in 31 carries.

Tustin (13-1) was on Sunny Hills’ side of the 50 most of the second half, but came away with little.

The Tillers got to the Lancer eight-yard line midway though the third quarter, but Matt Coo shanked a 24-yard field attempt. Coo also missed a 51-yard attempt at the end of the first half.

Tustin drove from its own nine to the Sunny Hills four midway through the fourth quarter. But Ancich, who gained 58 yards on the series, was slowed down inside the 10. He gained only four yards on three carries and Tustin settled for a 21-yard field goal by Coo.

“He (Visko) was running over us pretty good,” Sunderland said. “But when we got close to the goal line, there was no place for him to run. We were going to stop him.”

Still, the field goal appeared to be enough. The Tustin defense, which had given up only 80 points, seemed to have its third shutout in hand.

“We got in the huddle and I told the guys now was the time,” Sunny Hills’ quarterback Jamal McKenzie said . “I said, ‘We’ve been messing up all a night and it’s time to get our butts in gear.’ I was not going to let us lose.”

The Lancers put together a 17-play drive, including a four-yard pass from McKenzie to Stephen Choe on fourth-and-three.

Overby, who had 58 yards, and Mike Sullivan, who gained 72, did most of the work. Sullivan gained 39 yards on the drive, including a 14-yard run on a third-and-four play. Overby then capped the drive and the season by burrowing behind the offensive line for the touchdown.

“Every one gave up on us at the start of the season and nobody gave us a chance tonight,” Sunderland said. “Well, we’re the champions now. That’s all I have to say.”