THE HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE ELLING : Taft Came Crashing Back to Earth When Its Air Mission Failed

Where did all the magic go?

When it came time to pull a rabbit out of a hat, junior quarterback Mike Ferguson had nothing up his sleeve but his bony right arm.

Presto, change-o, the magic was gone in a puff of chalk dust.

Accent the change-o, because for Taft, this marked a distinct change of pace. “Everything that went our way over the past three games just caved in,” Ferguson said.

Taft’s torrid playoff run ended Friday in the City Section 3-A Division football final with a lopsided, 24-7 loss to San Pedro.

Some say luck evens out over the long haul. Ferguson now has a long-term subscription to this theory.

To be sure, Taft (9-5) led a charmed playoff life. And Ferguson surely was the front man.

His good fortune during the postseason not only was consistent but quantifiable:

* He threw a crucial scoring pass that inexplicably sailed through the arms of a defender and into his receiver’s hands at the goal line.

* On kickoffs, he twice booted line drives into the backside of an opposing player, and Taft recovered on both occasions.

* In a couple of instances, he was sacked for huge losses, only to be bailed out by momentum-swinging face-mask penalties against the defense.

* He threw an interception that was nullified by a roughing-the-passer penalty.

* Taft’s defense also forced fortuitous turnovers, including a goal-line fumble that led to the go-ahead touchdown in a 26-14 victory over Fremont.

“If there is a luckier team, I’d like to see it,” Taft Coach Troy Starr said with a laugh. “But it ran out (Friday) night.”

Maybe ran is the wrong word.

Luck passed out. Cold.

San Pedro quarterback Chris Pappas, who had thrown for 649 yards and four touchdowns all season, passed for 185 yards and three scores.

For Taft, the whole idea was to make San Pedro (12-1-1) throw. Unfortunately, it worked. “Our whole game plan was to stop the rush,” Starr said. “They did the same thing to us. It boiled down to who had the better passing game.”

It was no contest. Boiled? Taft was room-temp; San Pedro sizzled.

Among San Pedro’s three aerial strikes was a 70-yard scoring reception by Bryant Thomas on the Pirates’ first offensive play.

That play was set up by Taft’s first bad break.

The Toreadors took the opening kickoff and immediately established their running game. Taft moved to the San Pedro 30-yard line but failed to convert on fourth and two.

Junior center Joey Rothman, a two-time All-West Valley League selection, snapped the ball early on the play and Ferguson was buried for no gain.

“He’s never made that mistake before,” Ferguson said of Rothman. “I swear, that’s the first time all year that he messed up on the count. That did set the tone.”

Thomas scored on the next play and for Taft, the ensuing climb was too steep. The Toreadors managed 80 total yards, 57 coming on the ill-fated first possession.

Sophomore tailback Jerry Brown started decently enough, gaining 41 yards in the first half, which, against San Pedro, is significant. The Pirates had allowed an average of only 134 yards a game, 55 on the ground.

With Taft trailing, 21-0, at halftime, however, Brown’s number was called only seven times in the second half. He finished with 60 yards in 18 carries, giving him 1,731 yards for the season.

With the ground game mired in the mud, Ferguson was backed into a corner. He failed to complete his last 10 passes, including all six in the second half.

Ferguson, for one, never expected the running game to disappear. “Not at all,” he said. “They scouted us real well. They had our plays down pat. It was tough.”

Without question. During one particularly rough first-half stretch, Ferguson threw three interceptions in four passes. San Pedro converted two of the turnovers into touchdowns.

Overall, Ferguson completed two of 13 for 16 yards, but he had help. At least four of his passes appeared catchable, but the receivers failed to offer much assistance.

Starr took the loss with a grain of salt. He found it difficult to be downcast, especially since he knew full well that Taft, winless last season, had tap-danced through a minefield to get to the grand ballroom.

“To get to the finals, we had some breaks,” Starr said. “Good things happened. A tipped pass here, a penalty there.

“You can’t expect that to last forever.”

No, but an extra 48 minutes would have been nice.