Wallace Makes Himself a Name and Taft Wins

Lawrence “Taco” Wallace won’t reveal the origin of his nickname until after the football season but there is no other mystery about the Taft High wide receiver.

He is a critical part of the Toreador offense.

Wallace caught 12 passes for 112 yards and scored two touchdowns in Taft’s 21-0 victory over Dorsey on Friday night in a nonconference game at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Wallace’ numbers come on the heels of a nine reception, 186-yard, two-touchdown performance in a 38-22 victory over Crenshaw last week.

“I promise I’ll tell after the last game,” Wallace said. “But for now, I want to keep it a secret.”

Brandon Hance, Taft’s quarterback, doesn’t know why Lawrence is called Taco, nor does he really care.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Hance said. “I must have heard 20 different stories but he’s a big-play receiver.”

Wallace came alive in the second quarter. After throwing a few short passes to Wallace, Hance finally went deep, connecting on touchdown plays of 20 and 31 yards to his favorite receiver.

Taft (2-1) led at the half, 14-0.

The Toreadors took the second-half kickoff and drove 88 yards in 14 plays, scoring on a two-yard run by Marquis Brignac with 4:26 left in the quarter.

Hance played his best game, completing 17 of 23 passes for 138 yards.

Brignac added 122 rushing yards in 24 carries.

“We’re getting better,” Hance said. “I’m not sure we came out as intensely as we should have, but we got better and better as the game went on.”

The Taft defense had no such problems keeping focused. Although the Dons entered Taft territory on every possession but one, the Toreador defense never broke despite allowing 234 yards rushing.

Dorsey (1-1-1) turned the ball over on downs three times in the first half.

Quarterback Lonnie Honeycutt fumbled the ball away twice, Michael Adams and Dionte Hall recovering for Taft.

Honeycutt spent much of the second half scrambling and finished with 73 yards in 19 carries.

Honeycutt was sacked by Adams six times.

Dorsey was stopped at the Taft two as time expired.

“[The shutout] gives us a lot of confidence,” Adams said. “We’re ready now.”

Indeed, Taft appears ready for the Northwest Valley Conference season which begins next week. That couldn’t be said two weeks ago, when the Toreadors lost their opener to Banning, 41-13.

“We’ve been getting better at blocking and tackling,” Taft Coach Troy Starr said. “The boring stuff.”