Taft Unable to Catch Castaneda, San Pedro : Prep football: Smallest Pirate player makes two scoring catches, Toreadors drop City 3-A final, 24-7.

When Bryan Castaneda was hoisted atop his teammates’ shoulders a few moments after the City Section 3-A Division football final Friday night, nobody grunted.

Nobody strained.

No muscles ached.

At 5-foot-6 and 145 pounds, Castaneda is the smallest player on the San Pedro High team, but nobody loomed larger or made more of an impact.

Castaneda caught a pair of scoring passes and added two interceptions as San Pedro hammered Taft, 24-7, at Gardena High.

It marked the first football title in school history for second-seeded San Pedro, which opened its doors in 1908. And the smallest player on the field played the biggest game of his life.

“He played a helluva ballgame,” San Pedro receiver Bryant Thomas said. “Personally, I think he deserved the MVP.”

There wasn’t much room for argument. Castaneda caught three passes for 86 yards, two for touchdowns of 18 and 21 yards, to help hand San Pedro (12-1-1) a 21-0 lead at halftime. His timing also was perfect: Castaneda had not caught a scoring pass all season.

“I returned an interception for a touchdown, though,” Castaneda said, beaming.

San Pedro quarterback Chris Pappas completed six of 10 passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns. Pappas, a junior, kept hitting a wide-open Castaneda in the seam.

Taft (9-5) was reeling from square one. San Pedro scored on its first play, a 70-yard pass from Pappas to Thomas, and the rest was uphill for the Toreadors.

“The plan in every game has been to start with the run, to make ‘em stop our power attack,” Thomas said. “This time, we started with the pass and stayed with it.”

San Pedro also put the clamps on Taft tailback Jerry Brown, who was held to 60 yards in 18 carries. With the running game in check and Taft trailing virtually the entire game, quarterback Mike Ferguson was involuntarily thrust to the forefront. And he couldn’t produce.

“It hurts a lot,” Ferguson said. “Maybe I just wasn’t ready for a big game.”

Ferguson completed two of 13 for 16 yards and threw three interceptions. He failed to complete his final 10 passes.

“It was just miscommunication on my part with the receivers,” Ferguson said. “But their secondary played a great game.”

Trailing, 21-7, Taft had one legitimate attempt at mounting a comeback with nine minutes to play. The Toreadors drove to the San Pedro 34, but Ferguson couldn’t connect with receiver Dway McKeith--open near the 10-yard line--on fourth and nine.

San Pedro started throwing haymakers from the first play. After a Taft drive stalled at the San Pedro 30, Thomas scored on a 70-yard hitch pass to hand the Pirates a 7-0 lead. Before the first half was over, Pappas had thrown three touchdown passes.