Interception Return on Last Play Beats Taft : City 4-A football playoffs: Toreadors blow 13-point fourth-quarter lead and fall to Dorsey, 26-20.

It seemed almost too cruel.

The Taft High football team was granted a reprieve in Wednesday’s City Section 4-A Division playoff quarterfinal when the Dorsey kicker missed a tiebreaking extra-point attempt with 34 seconds to play.

The Toreadors recovered the subsequent onside kick--a victory in itself--and overtime appeared a certainty.

Taft gingerly attempted to move the ball into field-goal range, but Dons defensive back Antwain Wilson intercepted a pass by Dayon Shaw and raced untouched down the sideline for a 65-yard touchdown as time expired, and the Toreadors lost, 26-20.

Making the defeat more painful was the fact that Taft (10-2) allowed three touchdowns in the game’s final four minutes after taking a 20-7 lead with only five minutes to play. Take into account that it was the second consecutive season the Toreadors lost to Dorsey in the playoffs, and it was all too clear how deep Taft’s heartache ran.

“Our dream just went down the drain,” Taft lineman Edwin Preza said. “It was time for people to step up and show their character. We just couldn’t pull it out.”

Dorsey (10-2) advances to the semifinals next week against Crenshaw.

Taft appeared to have the game well in hand after scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to take a 20-7 lead. The first came on a 23-yard pass from Shaw to running back Dion Gaston on a third-down play. Taft missed the extra point and led, 12-7.

On Dorsey’s next play, quarterback Roderick Brown fumbled the exchange and Toreador lineman Juan Madera recovered at the Dons’ 18-yard line. Two plays later, Shaw ran 16 yards on a bootleg for the touchdown, and Gaston ran in the two-point conversion.

But as Taft players relished the thought of avenging last season’s 33-7 loss to Dorsey, the Dons struck quickly. They needed only three plays to score after Raymont Skaggs returned the kickoff 43 yards, cutting the lead to six points on a 25-yard pass from Brown to eventual hero Wilson.

Then came what has proved the bane of Taft--the onside kick. For the third time in two playoff games, the Toreadors were unable to recover the squib kick, and Dorsey took over at the 50.

“We just couldn’t get a bounce,” Preza said.

Nine plays later, Dorsey’s Brown scored on a three-yard keeper. Raul Menjivar missed the extra point to keep the score tied.

But the flub turned out not to matter. Taft recovered the onside kick at its own 44-yard line with 34 seconds to play and hurriedly tried to get in position to kick a winning field goal. Shaw took a snap from the 50 with 10 seconds to play. He tried one last pass, a sideline route to receiver DaShon Polk, but overthrew him, right into the chest of Wilson.

Wilson bobbled the ball, grabbed it, then raced untouched up the sideline to end the contest in shocking fashion.

“It’s the best thing that ever happened to me in my whole life,” Wilson said while standing in the middle of a jubilant crowd. “I told the guys, ‘Never get your head down, because anything can happen’--as you can see.”