FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Garfield’s Second-Half Rally Falls Short Against Taft

Taft 34, Garfield 27--Edgar Soto was stopped at the eight-yard line as time expired, cutting short Garfield’s dramatic second-half rally against the 4-A’s second-seeded team in a City Section first-round game at Taft.

The Bulldogs, seeded No. 15, held Taft scoreless in the second half, scored three touhdowns themselves while recovering two late onside kicks, and came up just eight yards short.

“We started slowly, but conditioning-wise, we knew that Taft had too many players going both ways,” Garfield Coach John Aguirre said. “We felt the second half would be ours.”

It was. Garfield (7-4) outscored the City’s second-seeded team, 20-0, after halftime.

The final touchdown, a 14-yard play, came with only 33 seconds remaining in the game. After recovering the onside kick, Garfield drew a pass interference penalty against Taft and had the ball at the Toreador 23-yard line with only five seconds to play.

After a time out, Garfield opted to go with the screen to Soto, who was tackled at the eight.

Eddie Hermoso passed for 352 yards and three touchdowns for Garfield. Rudy Burruel had eight receptions for 179 yards.

The poor second half overshadowed a brilliant first half for Taft, in which running back Jerry Brown, who finished with 266 yards in 19 carries, had touchdown runs of five, 22, and 86 yards. Quarterback Dayon Shaw threw two scoring passes.