Taft Does a Stop and Go

As the bus carrying the Taft High football team wound its way to Fremont High for the City Championships semifinals, the Toreadors made an unscheduled pit stop.

The bus lurched to a halt in the parking lot of the Coliseum. The players were silent as they remembered where they had been and where they are going.

Taft will play in the major-division championships for the third consecutive season after defeating Dorsey, 27-20, Friday night.

“We didn’t say anything,” defensive end Michael Adams said of the brief stop. “We just sat there. But now we’re going back.”

The seventh-seeded Toreadors (11-2) will play Banning in their quest to win their first football championship. Taft lost to the Pilots, 41-13, in the opening week of the season. And Taft lost to San Pedro in the last two 4-A championship games.

The Toreadors held a 21-20 lead most of the fourth quarter and didn’t clinch the victory until Adams returned a fumble 36 yards for a touchdown with 32 seconds remaining.

Adams recorded three sacks and stopped the Dons’ two-point conversion attempt with eight minutes left.

Taft was in control most of the game behind quarterback Brandon Hance. Hance broke off a 64-yard run in the first quarter and scored on a 26-yard run. He finished with 95 yards in 10 carries.

Hance completed 11 of 19 passes for 197 yards and two touchdowns, both to Lawrence Wallace.

“Brandon made some tremendous plays,” Taft Coach Troy Starr said. “Those plays really gave us a lift.”

Wallace finished with eight receptions for 159 yards and scored on catches of 33 and six yards. The second score gave Taft a 21-6 lead midway through the third quarter and the Toreadors appeared on their way to a repeat of a 21-0 victory over the Dons earlier this year.

But as rain began falling in the third quarter, the Dorsey running game took over.

Major Cobb scored on a 35-yard run and Nevin McGee added a two-point conversion to cut the lead to 20-14 late in the third quarter.

Tashari Williams scored on an 10-yard run with eight minutes left to give Dorsey (9-3-1) a chance to take the lead.

But McGee was stopped by Adams and Brandon Walker at the one on the two-point conversion. Dorsey did not try to kick an extra point in the game.

“We were one for [two], so I figured we would have a shot,” Dorsey Coach Paul Knox said.

The Dons had another chance when Marquis Brignac of Taft fumbled at his 42 with six minutes left. Dorsey drove to the Taft 19 before Williams was stopped by Adams on consecutive plays.

Cobb had 119 yards in 13 carries for Dorsey. Brignac, who has rushed for over 1,600 yards, was held to 54 in 15 carries.