Grant, Poly Left in Dusk With a Tie

Standard time arrived 48 hours early at Grant High on Friday.

A Valley Pac-8 Conference football game between Grant and Poly ended in a 28-28 tie after game officials erroneously ruled against playing an overtime period.

According to City Section rules, overtime cannot begin more than 10 minutes after sunset at a stadium without lights. The fourth quarter ended at 5:26 p.m. Because officials believed sunset was at 5:10, the game was called although the sun was clearly visible above the horizon.

However, sunset wasn’t until 6:10 on Friday.

So the officials ended a game early that finished in spectacular fashion for Poly.

Quarterback Harold Berreondo connected with Steven Smith on a 35-yard touchdown pass play with 44 seconds remaining to pull the Parrots (2-4-1, 2-1-1 in conference play) to within 28-26. But the touchdown paled in comparison to the two-point conversion.

Berreondo rolled out on an option play but was met at the line of scrimmage by linebacker George Kevorkian. Berreondo managed to elude Kevorkian’s grasp, backtracked 10 yards, ran the width of the field, and heaved a desperation pass across his body to the back of the end zone . . . right to an unguarded Joel Cruz.

Smith gained 106 of his 116 rushing yards in the first half, scoring on runs of 58 and five yards, but he also fumbled four times, losing two. David Valencia, who had a big second half, rushed for 92 yards in 12 carries.

Tevita Manu rushed for 171 yards in 27 carries and scored on an 11-yard run for Grant (2-4-1, 1-2-1) in the third quarter.