Taft’s Ferguson Almost Perfect in 42-14 Romp

When you reach 8-0, as Taft High did with its 42-14 North Valley League victory Friday over Granada Hills, it’s the little things you start to worry about.

For example, quarterback Mike Ferguson threw a career-high five touchdown passes and ran for a sixth.

But after the postgame interviews, Ferguson couldn’t help muttering about the interception he threw in the second quarter--his first of the season.

And then there were the penalties. After all, 506 yards in total offense for Taft (5-0 in league play) looks great. But it would look a lot better without 155 yards in penalties--130 in the first half.

“We’ve got some big games we have to play in the future,” Taft Coach Troy Starr said. “We can’t do that.”

Then again, when a 19-carry, 161-yard rushing game by tailback Jerry Brown doesn’t even merit top billing in the postgame wrap-up, something must be going right.

Above all, that was Ferguson. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound senior completed 11 of 18 passes for 221 yards before sitting out the fourth quarter.

Amid Starr’s cry of, “I don’t know why he does that,” Ferguson simply got back on his feet after taking a crushing hit while scrambling past the first-down marker instead of going out of bounds and finished off a first half in which he threw for four touchdowns.

Dion Gaston caught the first, a four-yard pass with 9 minutes 27 seconds left in the first quarter.

Granada Hills lineman Chris Ortiz ran 52 yards with a fumblerooskie to the Toreadors’ 14-yard line on the next series. But two plays later, Dayon Shaw nabbed the first of his two interceptions.

Four plays after that, Ferguson hit receiver Andre DeSaussure slanting in for a 78-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 5 minutes 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

With two minutes remaining in the quarter, Ferguson scored on a five-yard run for a 21-0 lead.

Running back Danny Haag brought the Highlanders (1-7, 1-4) back with a 40-yard scoring run, cutting the Taft lead to 21-6 with 8:46 remaining before intermission.

That still left time for Ferguson to throw touchdown passes to DeSaussure (29 yards) and Gaston (22 yards) to give the Toreadors a 35-6 halftime lead.

Donte Daley caught a 10-yard pass with 4:15 remaining in the third quarter to finish the Taft scoring. Then Ferguson and Brown sat out the fourth quarter.