Blunt, San Fernando Roll to Victory Over Kennedy

Procrastination has an undeserved bad reputation.

San Fernando High quarterback Leon Blunt likes to wait until the 11th hour. It’s just his way.

“The fourth quarter is my quarter,” Blunt said. “I don’t know why I always wait until the last minute. Even in school, I wait until the last two weeks of the semester to start studying.”

Friday night, it was another cram session: Right down archrival Kennedy’s throat.

Blunt rushed for three touchdowns and orchestrated another of his patented rallies as San Fernando knocked off the Golden Cougars, 28-14, in a North Valley League game before an overflow crowd of 5,000 at Kennedy High.

San Fernando (5-1, 3-0 in league play) sputtered and coughed for much of the game. Then, as usual, when push came to shove in the final minutes, San Fernando let its senior option whiz take center stage.

“He just sorta takes over,” said Dwight Chapman, San Fernando’s offensive coordinator and an assistant at the school for the past 19 years. “I figured, ‘This doesn’t work. That doesn’t work. So why not put the ball in his hands?’ ”

It paid off handsomely. Kennedy’s Laron Scarbrough scored on a 49-yard punt return with 7 minutes 53 seconds remaining in the game to tie the score, 14-14, but it only lit a fire under Blunt and San Fernando.

Blunt, who finished with 93 yards in 16 carries, bolted for 23 yards on an option keeper on the first play of the Tigers’ ensuing possession, and added 17 more on a broken-play scramble one play later. Larry Ford capped the drive with a three-yard touchdown run for a 21-14 lead with 4:49 left.

Kennedy (2-3-1, 1-2) turned the ball over on its next possession when tailback Donte Scarbrough (115 yards in 17 carries) fumbled on the first play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Blunt scored on a 10-yard option keeper.

The Golden Cougars managed only 90 yards in the second half--64 on their final possession.

Kennedy took a 7-0 lead on its second possession when Scarbrough broke several tackles and sprinted down the right sideline for a 42-yard score.

San Fernando answered when Blunt scrambled around the left end on another broken play and scored from 26 yards. At the half, which ended in a 7-7 tie, San Fernando had 54 yards.

Blunt gave San Fernando a 14-7 lead with 46 seconds left in the third quarter, bolting in from three yards on an option keeper. After he added his third scoring run, Blunt did a victory lap down the Kennedy sideline. Not a word was uttered in protest.

What could Kennedy possibly say? The Golden Cougars knew who they had to stop, and they came up short. So have others.

“We just do good in the fourth quarter,” Blunt said. “Why? I don’t know. But we do.”