Mistakes Cost Jefferson, 35-29

Jefferson High Coach Hank Johnson looked over his tired team--quarterback Ray Brown, running back Najiya Martin and the rest of the players who had fought but lost to San Fernando, 35-29, in a City Section nonconference game Friday.

He asked them not to take this loss hard but knew they would. He said before the game, the season opener, that his team could not stop San Fernando quarterback Terrell Stanley, who wound up throwing four touchdown passes in front of Jefferson’s home crowd.

“We couldn’t stop them,” Johnson said. “But we played right with them. We just made one too many mistakes.”

Those mistakes were made on successive plays in a stretch of only 18 seconds--the time it took for the Democrats to lose a 7-6 lead and trail, 21-7, ending any hopes of an upset of the heavily favored Tigers.

The miscues began with four seconds left in the first half, when Stanley completed a 37-yard touchdown pass to Ramon Rivera in front of three defenders, the first of two touchdown catches for Rivera. The stretch ended after Jefferson fumbled the kickoff to start the second half, with San Fernando recovering at the one-yard line. Mike Gomez scored on a one-yard run on the next play.

Jefferson fought the rest of the game, exchanging scores with San Fernando, but was never able to get back what it lost.

“We had it up to there,” Johnson said. “And then we couldn’t get it back, but we sure had guys trying.”

One of them was Brown, a senior, who completed only nine passes but for 205 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for a one-yard score on the game’s final play, part of his 67 yards rushing, which was deflated by a loss of 30 yards on three sacks.

“He has the complete game,” Johnson said. “Ray and the others kept scoring with them.”

Martin was one of the others. He is only 5 feet 3 and 135 pounds but is a three-year varsity starter. On San Fernando’s go-ahead score ending the first half, he batted the ball down, but off another player and into Rivera’s hands. And it was Martin who fumbled the kickoff that led to the Tigers’ next score.

“I was down [after fumbling the kickoff], but what good does it do the team to be down?” Martin said. “I tried to come back and make some plays.”

He began by catching a 19-yard touchdown pass near the start of the fourth quarter, and added the two-point conversion to pull the Democrats to 21-15. He caught a 24-yard pass on Jefferson’s next drive, added another two-point conversion later in the game, and caught a 42-yard pass among three defenders to set up Brown’s score on the final play.

“Isn’t he something,” Johnson said. “We can’t match up, but we can keep it close with players with a heart like his. And today we sure kept it close. They were just better.”