Kennedy Wins on Last Play After a Mistake by Cypress

Five buses filled with coaches and players from the Kennedy and Cypress football teams sat side by side in the parking lot Thursday night at Western High after a hard-hitting Empire League game.

Emotionally, however, they were worlds apart after Alex Vasquez kicked a 22-yard field goal as time expired, giving Kennedy a 9-7 victory.

Cypress, the defending league champion that had its season end with the loss, sat silent with heads hanging.

Cypress (3-7, 2-3) lost a coin flip with El Dorado and Katella in case of a tie for third.

Kennedy, which will enter the playoffs next week as the No. 2 team from the Empire League, shouted and slapped hands in a frenzied celebration.

A Cypress miscue set up the game-winner for Vasquez, a laser shot from the left hash mark that soared inside the right post.

Trailing, 7-6, with 24 seconds to play, Kennedy (7-3, 4-1) forced Cypress to punt from its 23. The low snap grazed the ground and punter Chad Halbert couldn’t handle it.

Kennedy recovered at the Cypress seven, ran two plays then turned it over to Vasquez.

“I kicked a game-winner last year, but I was still nervous,” Vasquez said. “I wanted to do something to help this team. All I do for this team is kick so it feels good to make a game-winner.”

Cypress took a 7-6 lead when defensive back Jelani Gamba intercepted a pass in the left flat and raced untouched 61 yards for a touchdown with 8:19 to play.

Kennedy answered with a 14-play, 62-yard drive to the Cypress seven-yard line. Some fine individual efforts by Kennedy slot back Steve Yaden on screen passes of 11, 8 and 17 yards highlighted the drive.

Cypress stalled the drive, then blocked a 24-yard field goal attempt by Vasquez and took over leading 7-6 with 2:48 to play.

But the Centurions, hampered by a holding call on the first play of the ensuing drive, couldn’t get a first down and were forced into the fateful punt.

“The fumbled snap tells the story of our whole year,” Cypress Coach Kerry Crabb said. “It just comes down to not making mistakes. You can’t win if you make mistakes.”

Kennedy’s first score came on a one-yard run by Kelvin Beatty, who had 138 yards in 27 carries. Yaden, who had eight receptions for 97 yards, explained the emotion displayed by both teams.

“It’s a rivalry,” Yaden said. “This is everything. It wouldn’t matter if we were in last place, it would still mean everything.