Sylmar Has No Second Chance

All things considered, Antelope Valley High wasn’t half bad on Friday night.

That was a change of pace for the Antelopes, who in two previous games had been outscored by 30 points after intermission.

Antelope Valley exploded for 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to post an impressive 27-7 intersectional victory over Sylmar, The Times’ second-ranked team in the region.

Quarterback Justin Mobley’s one-yard sneak early in the final period broke a 7-7 tie.

His 28-yard pass to Joe Manning on the following possession made it 20-7, and running back Andrew Campbell added a 14-yard scoring run.

“This is one of the sweetest victories we’ve had here,” said Brent Newcomb, the coach in his 20th season who has guided the Antelopes to three Southern Section titles.

For the second season in a row, the showdown between arguably the area’s best City and Southern Section teams went to Antelope Valley (2-1), a 28-21 winner last year.

Last week, the Antelopes almost squandered a 33-0 halftime lead before beating Barstow, 33-27.

“We came to play today,” said Manning, who also intercepted Joey LaPorte’s first-quarter pass and returned it 75 yards for a touchdown. “We came to get it done in the second half.”

Sylmar running backs Donald Carpenter (94 yards in nine carries) and Errol Bowen (93 in eight carries) were rarely stopped.

The Spartans (2-1), however, were called for 126 yards in penalties, missed a 36-yard field goal, had a sure touchdown pass dropped in the end zone and were stopped twice on fourth-and-short situations.

“It was a heck of a shootout there for a while,” said Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman, whose team outgained Antelope Valley, 343-318. “But they didn’t make mistakes and we did.”

Sylmar’s only score came early in the second quarter when Carpenter ran it in from 11 yards out.

Antelope Valley played without leading rusher Bruce Molock (ankle). Campbell (70 yards), Jermaine Norman (58), Mobley (48) and Nakia Manick (41) shared the load.

Sylmar had 228 yards in the first half.