Myles’ Exploits Keep Banning on Right Foot

Banning receiver B.J. Myles never believed his shoe size would be factor in football until Friday afternoon’s game at Manual Arts High.

While the Toilers were slipping on their muddy field, Myles maintained his balance to score three touchdowns and lead Banning to a 42-23 victory in a City Section 4-A first-round playoff game.

Myles, who wears a size 15 shoe, caught a pass from quarterback Ira McKenna for a 60-yard touchdown, had a 86-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and scored on a 30-yard reverse.

His third touchdown was the most impressive and gave the Pilots (4-7) a 35-7 third-quarter lead.

Lining up on the left, Myles took a handoff and headed to the right side of the field, where he was grabbed from behind by two Manual Arts defenders. Spinning away, Myles ran back to the left sideline, picked up a block and scored after running two widths of the field and 30 more yards.

“They tripped me up at the time,” Myles said about the run, “[But] I wear a size 15, and I kept my balance.”

Myles’ final touchdown seemed to spark Manual Arts (7-3-1), which sleepwalked through most of the first three quarters.

On Manuel Arts’ next possession, quarterback Willie Lafitte threw to John Hildreth for a 60-yard touchdown and then made a two-point conversion on a bootleg. After Francisco Alvarez recovered an onside kick, Lafitte threw a 25-yard scoring pass to Levar Mahoney and a pass to Earwin Burton for the two-point conversion to make the score 35-23 with 5:15 to play in the third quarter.

But Banning scored again on James Lawrence’s 36-yard run.

“I think we got whupped, not only by a good Banning team, but by the Banning mystique,” Manual Arts Coach Glenn Bell said.