Late Carson Score Stymies Sylmar

Talk about a roller-coaster ride.

Less than two minutes after taking a seven-point lead on a never-before-used trick play late in the fourth quarter, Sylmar High watched its dreams of repeating as City Section 4-A Division champion disintegrate.

Carson answered with a touchdown and two-point conversion run to notch a 22-21 victory Friday night in a semifinal game in front of a capacity crowd at Sylmar High.

In a matchup of teams which played for the 1992 4-A championship (won by Sylmar, 17-0), the Spartans ended up on the short end. And Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman can’t help but wonder what might have been.

“Can’t get much closer than that, can you?” he said. “We made a few mistakes when we shouldn’t have.”

With the score tied, 14-14, on its next-to-last possession, Sylmar took the lead on a play it had never used. From the Sylmar 31-yard line, quarterback Eddie Lopez bounced a backward pass to wide receiver Victor Cardenas, who stood five yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Thinking it was an incomplete pass, the Carson secondary relaxed, allowing Dwight Patton to streak downfield all alone.

Cardenas cocked his arm and tossed a perfect pass to Patton, who caught it at about the Carson 45 and raced into the end zone to complete the 69-yard pass play with 2:42 remaining.

Pandemonium broke out on the Sylmar sideline. Hoots, hollers and hugs were plentiful.

Unfortunately for the defending champions, Carson wasn’t finished.

Carson’s final possession started at its 47 after a short kickoff.

Quarterback Ramon Rodgers (seven of 11, 187 yards) took over from there. On a second-and-10 play at the Sylmar 38, Rodgers hit receiver J.R. Redmond 36 yards downfield at the two-yard line.

Robert Johnson ran in from the two on the next play to trim Sylmar’s lead to 21-20.

On the two-point conversion, Sylmar had quarterback Steve Faupusa stopped at the line of scrimmage, but Faupusa escaped around the right side of the pile and scored to give Carson a 22-21 lead with 1:11 to play.

Suddenly, the party shifted to the Carson sideline. Sylmar tried in vain to drive close enough for a field goal on its ensuing possession, but could get no closer than the Carson 43. Robert Camacho’s 62-yard field-goal attempt fell short at the goal line.

Carson, which rolled up 369 yards, had no trouble moving the ball in the first half. The Colts drove inside Sylmar’s 10 on all four of their first-half possessions--twice they scored touchdowns, and twice they fumbled.

Sylmar capitalized on both turnovers, driving 92 and 96 yards to take a 14-0 lead.

The Spartans’ first drive was all Tyrone Crenshaw (17 carries, 111 yards). He carried six times for all 92 yards. On his sixth carry, Crenshaw danced through a seam at the line of scrimmage and bolted 61 yards to the end zone to ignite the Sylmar fans and give the Spartans a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

The second drive started when linebacker Durell Price recovered a fumble at the Sylmar four. Paced by a 50-yard pass play from Eddie Lopez to Dwight Patton, Sylmar drove inside Carson’s 20 and faced third and nine at the 14. On a roll-out scramble, Lopez dumped a short pass to Price, who rumbled for the score.

Carson answered with a five-yard touchdown run by John Houston and a 33-yard pass from Rogers to Nakia Wheeler to tie the score, 14-14, at halftime.