California Defeats Texas on the Final Play of Game

California high school defenses are used to seeing Los Alamitos’ Keenan Howry and Newhall Hart’s Kyle Boller perform miracles. Now Texas has seen them too.

Boller connected with Howry on a 37-yard Hail Mary pass as time expired to give California a wild 28-25 come-from-behind victory over Texas in the 48th annual Shrine Football Classic before an announced crowd of 8,000 at Cerritos College on Saturday.

Howry, who’s going to Oregon, and Texas defensive back Jason Frederick came down with the ball together in a corner of the end zone. A touchdown was signaled, igniting a celebration, a couple of small shoving matches, and a thrown football by Frederick in the direction of the California celebration.

“I wasn’t sure if [the official] was going to give me the touchdown or call it an interception,” said Howry, who also made the key reception to set up California’s touchdown to make it 25-22. “I was just struggling with it, fighting for it.

“I saw everybody going crazy and it felt awesome.”

The game appeared lost for California after a Dan Walker 45-yard field goal gave Texas a 25-15 lead with 7:10 to go.

But with less than two minutes remaining, Long Beach Poly’s Chris Lewis, who left the game earlier in the fourth quarter after being shaken up, found Howry down the sideline for a 33-yard gain to the 1-yard line. Sacramento Grant’s Onterrio Smith dove in for a score with 1:47 left.

A California onside kick was recovered by Smith, but it was ruled a California player touched the ball before it went 10 yards.

Texas’ attempt to run out the clock failed, as quarterback Colby Freeman, the Texas player of the game, ran back six yards on fourth down but took a knee with two seconds remaining, setting up Boller and Howry’s heroics.

San Bernardino Pacific’s Joe Webber was the player of the game for California, which is 5-0 against Texas.