Sunny Hills Shoots Down Irvine

It came down to one play, two seconds and four yards.

A moment later, Irvine quarterback Jason Minici, his intended receiver, Danny Kang, and the football all lay on the field. And Sunny Hills’ players celebrated the team’s first victory, a 13-9 nonleague decision Friday night over Irvine in front of 2,500 at Irvine High.

For the longest time, Sunny Hills appeared to have the game well in hand, but it started to come apart in the final minutes. All the Lancers (1-2) had to do was sweat out the final 1:25 and the game was theirs.

Trailing, 13-9, Irvine had the ball on its own 27-yard line. It didn’t look promising for Irvine (2-1, and No. 4 in Orange County and in the Southern Section Division II). Minici had thrown for 205 yards to that point, but the yardage made hardly a dent in Sunny Hills’ defense.

The next few minutes brought the crowd to its feet, and made nervous wrecks of coaches Tim Devaney of Sunny Hills and Terry Henigan of Irvine.

After an incomplete pass, Minici connected on six consecutive passes to move Irvine to the Sunny Hills four-yard line with 28 seconds left. He worked his receivers, the clock and the right sideline masterfully. The biggest gains went for 19 yards to Kang for a first down at the Sunny Hills 46. He also completed passes of 12, 10 and 11 yards to Jon Peck.

“We lost a lot of energy at the end of the game,” Devaney said.

On first and goal at the four, Minici misfired to Kang in the end zone with 11 seconds left. On second down, it seemed Kang had Minici’s pass for an instant, but Sunny Hills defender Bobby Sunderland jumped Kang a second later, jarring the ball loose. On third down, Brent Howes hit Peck, forcing an incompletion.

By then, there were two seconds left. Kang broke open for an instant, but Minici overthrew him.

Minici lay face first on the turf for several moments before teammates came to comfort him. It had been a remarkable last drive. He finished the night with 274 yards and one touchdown of five yards to Kang, completing 21 of 39 passes.

The end came with great relief for Sunny Hills. Last season’s Division VI champion had struggled in losing its first two games. But the Lancers’ balanced offense and a stingy defense led them to a 13-3 lead midway through the third quarter.

Running backs Marlon Womack and Robert Griffin took turns hammering out five- and six-yard gains, and quarterback Steve Mellano was steady if unspectacular.

Mellano’s eight-yard run around left end gave Sunny Hills a 10-point lead with 5:03 left in the third quarter and it appeared the Lancers were in command.