Fremont Slips Past South Gate

Heavily favored and undefeated Fremont High came from behind to defeat South Gate in overtime, 31-24, Friday in a Southeastern Conference football game before about 350 at Fremont.

Senior tailback James Tillman scored on a two-yard run--his third touchdown of the game--and Fremont’s defense caused a fumble to keep South Gate from scoring in overtime.

“Do you ever want to have to go through this again?” Coach Pete Duffy screamed at his team after the game.

“No, sir,” a relieved Pathfinder team responded.

Fremont, 8-0 overall and 6-0 in the conference, is ranked third in The Times’ City Section poll and had outscored its last three opponents, 118-13. The Pathfinders trailed, 10-7, at halftime and 17-7 in the third quarter.

“This team gets too comfortable with early leads,” Duffy said. “They’ve gotten used to beating up on teams and after the first drive, they thought they could relax. But South Gate didn’t. They were feisty.”

On Fremont’s opening drive, Tillman carried three straight times for 63 yards, the third a 36-yard scoring run, in the first minute of the game.

South Gate (5-3, 4-3) held Tillman to 46 yards the remainder of the half.

“We kind of cruised,” Tillman said, who ran for 156 yards in 25 carries. “I’m not taking anything away from South Gate. They played tough, but we really didn’t get it going until the second half.”

Ron Fleming’s touchdown on a 30-yard pass play from quarterback Wayne Johnson brought Fremont back to 17-14 in the third quarter. Jose Gonzales’ 27-yard field goal tied the score with seven minutes to play in the fourth.

Jairo Garcia, whose 12-yard run on the Rams’ first possession of the second half had given South Gate its 17-7 lead, added a 21-yard touchdown run to make the score 24-17 with less than three minutes left in regulation.

The Pathfinders responded with a scoring drive led by Tillman’s 47 yards rushing and ending with his one-yard run to tie the score.

“They were piling up the middle in the first half,” Duffy said. “We just spread them out and we opened it up for James.”

Fremont’s Darrell Johnson had three interceptions to end South Gate possessions.

“It’s hard getting them to focus right now because everybody’s thinking about the playoffs,” Duffy said, “but we still have three games to play before that.”