Ogle Had It All Figured at the Finish--Except the Down

With the crowd noise in his ears, a lump in his throat and his eyes on the scoreboard, Poly High quarterback Jelani Ogle nonetheless thought he had matters under control after sneaking to the Cleveland three-yard line with less than a minute to play Friday night.

He promptly lined up his teammates, took a snap and spiked the ball into the ground to stop the clock.

One problem: It was fourth down. The mental lapse, which occurred with about 40 seconds remaining, allowed Cleveland to escape with a 21-14 victory at home.

“I guess I thought it was third down,” Ogle said Saturday. “I was looking at the clock. I guess that’s what distracted me. I wasn’t really paying attention to the down. No one warned me what down it was.”

Ogle, a junior making his first varsity start, said he was nervous during Poly’s dramatic final series, but he remained confident the Parrots would score.

“I would have run it in easy,” he said, speculating on what would have happened had he not thrown the ball away on fourth and goal. “I could have just walked it in.

“Everybody was standing up and cheering. I had chills.”

Ogle’s blunder also had a chilling effect on his teammates.

Leaford Hackett, a tailback and receiver who sat out the last series after having trouble breathing, said the mood on the sideline went from euphoric to catastrophic.

“The whole team was pumped up,” Hackett said. “Then Jelani did that and everybody just dropped their heads and said, ‘Aw, man.’

“We were sort of mad because we knew we could win that game, but we didn’t really jump on his back because we messed up a lot, too. He made a mental mistake. There wasn’t anything you could really do about it.”

If nothing else, Ogle learned a valuable lesson.

“I’ll look at everything next time,” he said.

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Slowly but surely, North Hollywood has turned into Dante Clay’s football team.

That was evident after Clay, a junior tailback, rushed for 301 yards and two touchdowns in 21 carries Friday night as the Huskies tied El Camino Real, 20-20, at North Hollywood.

Since the beginning of last season, the Huskies have transformed from a run-and-shoot team that passed about 80% of the time, according to Coach Gary Gray, to a team that relies on a ball-control running attack. North Hollywood quarterback Jesus Acosta, who passed for 1,400 yards last season, failed to complete any of his four attempts Friday and had two passes intercepted.

Gray said he began to change the offense after moving Clay to tailback midway through the 1994 season. Clay rushed for 900 yards in the last six games.

Despite Clay’s performance, Gray was disappointed North Hollywood squandered a 20-7 lead. El Camino Real rallied for touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters and would have won had the Conquistadores converted either an extra-point attempt after their last score or a last-minute field-goal attempt.

“We lucked out,” Gray said.

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Ennis Davis, Reseda’s 6-foot-5, 300-pound senior lineman, goes by the nickname Big E.

After his performance in the Regents’ opener Friday, another appropriate moniker would be Ennis the Menace.

Davis spent a good portion of the night in Chatsworth’s backfield to help Reseda roll to a 36-20 victory at Chatsworth.

A top college prospect, Davis had 11 individual tackles, five assists, two sacks, a fumble recovery and a pass deflection playing both defensive end and nose guard. He also started at offensive tackle, only coming off the field on kickoffs.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a defensive lineman have that many tackles,” Reseda Coach Joel Schaeffer said. “Talk to the Chatsworth people. They’ll let you know he was around.”

Said Chatsworth Coach Myron Gibford: “[Davis] put a lot of pressure on our offense. We didn’t do a very good job with him.”

Davis was pleased he was able to play both ways the entire game. He said he suffered an asthma attack in the first half but didn’t take himself out, motivated by last season’s 21-10 loss to Chatsworth.

“I was just determined to be in the [Chatsworth] backfield on every play,” he said. “Our coaches showed us the tape of last year’s game and we looked terrible. I was thinking about that tape all week.”

Contrary to a report in a recruiting magazine, Davis said, he has not given USC a verbal commitment, although he said he is leaning toward the Trojans.

Despite his size, Davis claims he doesn’t eat very much during the week. He did, however, admit to having an appetite after Friday’s game.

“I had Taco Bell,” he said. “A whole lot of Taco Bell.”

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Chaminade Coach Rich Lawson had a good feeling walking onto the field Friday at Agoura. Standing in front of the 5-foot-9 Lawson were 6-5, 220-pound Gabe Crecion and 6-3, 225-pound Peter Foy.

“I’m saying to myself, ‘I’m a pretty lucky guy,’ ” Lawson said. “It’s nice to have those two big guys.”

Bookends on offense and defense, Crecion and Foy teamed to help the Eagles rout Agoura, 51-6. The seniors play tight end when Chaminade lines up in its single-back offense, and they play outside linebacker on defense.

The addition of Foy, a transfer from Grace Brethren in Simi Valley, where he played eight-man football, has been instrumental in helping Chaminade diversify its offense, Lawson said.

“We hadn’t been able to run a balanced set,” Lawson said. “We generally ran to the tight-end side. Now we’ve got [Foy] on the other side. We can come up to the line and audible to find where the defense is weakest and exploit that.”

Foy, who also played fullback, had an exceptional night. He caught three passes for 40 yards and a touchdown, and had two sacks, causing a fumble on one and recovering it for a touchdown. Lawson said it’s only a matter of time before Foy is highly recruited like Crecion, who is being courted by UCLA, USC, Washington and Colorado, among others.

“Because he played eight-man football, it’s going to take a little time for him to get some credit,” Lawson said. “If he keeps having games like [Friday], he will be a highly recruited kid.”