El Camino’s Rally Falls Short in Loss to Grossmont

It was the same old story for the El Camino College football team.

The Warriors’ Mission Conference game against Grossmont went down to the wire Saturday night, but El Camino’s late charge fell short in a 37-35 loss at El Camino.

The Warriors scored three touchdowns in the final six minutes to rally from a 27-0 second-quarter deficit.

Steve Sarkisian connected with David Saraff and Joseph Furlow kicked the extra point with 33 seconds left to bring El Camino within 37-35.

Grossmont recovered an on-side kick and ran out the clock to improve to 2-3, 1-2 in conference.

El Camino (1-5, 0-3) also lost its three previous games in the final minute.

“We weren’t mentally prepared,” said Sarkisian, who completed 25 of 40 passes for 344 yards and two touchdowns. “We know we’re never out of game and can always come back. It takes us a while to get going.”

Grossmont had a 10-0 lead after the first 3 minutes 8 seconds and led, 20-0, with four minutes to play in the first quarter.

The Griffins took a 37-14 lead on a five-yard run by Malik Anderson with 8:44 to play.

Robert Jenkins scored on a one-yard runs with 5:48 and 3:39 to play. After Jenkins’ second touchdown, Sarkisian passed to Timm Wynn for the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 37-28.

Jenkins finished with 56 yards in 14 carries and scored three touchdowns.

El Camino regained possession with 2:08 to play and drove 70 yards for its final touchdown.

Grossmont running back John Mozerka broke free up the middle on a 50-yard touchdown run on the game’s opening play for a 7-0 lead.

An interception by Grossmont linebacker Matt Jones set up a 27-yard field goal by Kevin Brennan to increase the Griffins’ advantage to 13-0 with 11:52 to play in the first quarter.

Grossmont, fueled by a 66-yard pass from Tom Karlo to Greg Giles, drove 90 yards in eight plays for its third touchdown. Marlon Manassa plunged in from two yards for a 20-0 advantage with 4:10 left in the first quarter.

Karlo scrambled for a 15-yard touchdown with 9:11 remaining in the second quarter to increase the lead to 27-0.

El Camino put together an 80-yard drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Sarkisian to Greg White.

Grossmont, however, took advantage of a fumbled punt by Leandrew Childs with 33 seconds to play before halftime. Brennan’s 28-yard field goal on the final play of the half gave the Griffins a 30-7 lead.

Glendale 28, Southwest 28--In a game between two 1-3-1 teams from the Western State Conference, Glendale blew leads of 14-0 and 22-8 and allowed Southwest to tie the score with less than a minute left.

Southwest quarterback Bradley Freeman threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Khybe Hairston and then hit Tyrone Gallien for a two-point conversion. Sophomore running back Pathon Rucker had his biggest rushing and scoring game of the season, with 246 yards in 25 carries and four touchdowns. He scored on runs of 39, one, 78 and two yards. Glendale had 409 yards of offense, 313 on the ground, but it also had six turnovers.