HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Dorsey’s Sloppy, but Good Enough for City Crown

Penalties: 30 for 288 yards.

Turnovers: five.

It was a game that met all the specifications for ugly, and it seemed only apt that Dorsey would beat San Pedro, 10-8, for the City Section Division 4-A championship Saturday with a 32-yard field goal that did everything but quack as it crept over the crossbar.

Juan Zianes’ first field goal was also his last. A senior recruited from Coach Paul Knox’s U.S. history class, Zianes had tried only one other, missing from 39 yards in Dorsey’s only loss, 37-35 against Torrey Pines in September.

“But he was warming up well, and I thought he could kick it,” said Knox, who coached his third City Section championship team.

Dorsey had to do something.

The Dons had beaten San Pedro, 35-28, during the season in a game in which “we couldn’t stop them and they couldn’t stop us,” Knox said. On Saturday, each team stopped itself.

The Dons (13-1) had taken a 7-0 lead in the second quarter when Raymont Skaggs scored on a 57-yard screen pass from Marvin Gomez.

Zianes’ conversion barely cleared the crossbar.

Typically for this game, before 7,500 at El Camino College, the touchdown came on a third-and-22 play, ending a drive that included three penalties.

“It was 70 screen left,” Skaggs said of the scoring play. Skaggs, Dorsey’s leading rusher all season, had gained four yards in six carries before 70 screen left.

“They were keying on me and I was getting frustrated,” he said. “That one helped us break loose.”

Maybe emotionally break loose, but not on the scoreboard. San Pedro hung around, exchanging punts, penalties and punishing defense, but not points, until the fourth quarter.

The Pirates (10-4) got the ball on Dorsey’s 31 when Antonio Dominguez intercepted a pass.

Again penalties--Dorsey had 19 for 173 yards, San Pedro 11 for 115 yards--figured in a drive that ended with Melvin Yarborough throwing a 15-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Tim O’Donnell.

En route, Dorsey was slapped with a roughing-the-passer penalty that put the ball on its 11.

Pirate Coach Mike Walsh knew what to do after the touchdown.

“We were going for two,” he said. “No doubt about it.”

Yarborough hit Steve Corley for the two-point conversion and an 8-7 lead with 10:06 to play.

San Pedro threatened to add to the lead when Mark Pappas returned a punt to the Dorsey seven, but penalties--for clipping on the play and unsportsmanlike conduct after it--moved the ball back to the Pirate 33.

On the next play, San Pedro’s Mike Castaneda was hit from behind by Dorsey’s Che Britton and fumbled, the Dons’ Calvin Carlyle recovering on San Pedro’s 47.

Eight plays later, Zianes kicked the winning points with 5:21 to play.

“When all is said and done, if we hadn’t put the ball on the turf, we still had a chance to win the ball game,” Walsh said.

The Pirates had a chance to win even after that.

They got the ball on their 24 with 1:41 to play after Skaggs fumbled. A 54-yard drive that included three pass-interference penalties and one for illegal procedure put San Pedro on Dorsey’s 22, with fourth and a foot to go, 15 seconds to play.

Walsh sent in Tony Danelo, who had kicked for the frosh-soph team all season. His try came from 39 yards out, and the ball never really got airborne.

“It was a tough position to put him in,” Walsh said. “He’s capable of making it, and I hope I didn’t ruin him, putting him in like that.”

An ugly game had become beautiful to Dorsey, which can put a plaque in its trophy case, but will probably want to burn the game film.