Sylmar Gets Tossed Out by Kennedy

Offensive madness. That’s what Coach Bob Francola of Kennedy High created when he gave his approval for assistant Fred Grimes’ request to abandon a power rushing attack for the run-and-shoot passing offense.

“It’s the Flying Cougar circus,” Grimes said Thursday night after the Golden Cougars rolled up 597 yards and scored 10 touchdowns in a 69-33 dismantling of Valley Mission League rival Sylmar in a City Championship playoff opener.

Ruben Zaragoza completed 21 of 29 passes for a school-record 442 yards and five touchdowns, and he ran for three touchdowns. His small but fearless receivers embarrassed Sylmar’s outmanned secondary.

James Norris, who is 5 feet 4 but runs a 4.4 40-yard dash, caught eight passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns, giving him 17 touchdown receptions in 11 games.

“He’s better than incredible,” Francola said of Norris.

Sanders Trent, who is 5-8, caught six passes for 97 yards and one touchdown. Daron Taylor, 5-10, made four receptions for 108 yards and one touchdown.

It was the second time in four weeks Kennedy (8-3) has beaten Sylmar (7-4), and much credit goes to Francola. He had the courage to trust Grimes and assistant Billy Parra to let Zaragoza throw more than 350 passes this season.

“There’s no turning back,” Francola said of his decision to pass the ball. “This is about as good as it gets for an old man like me. If we had played smash-mouth football, we wouldn’t have won tonight. There wasn’t anybody who thought we could do this.”

Kennedy opened a 42-27 halftime lead and kept Sylmar behind with second-half interceptions by Charles Nettles, Danny Ramirez and Amado Rodriguez.

“They’ve done a phenomenal job,” Coach Jeff Engilman of Sylmar said of the Kennedy staff. “Fred and the staff have utilized whatever they had and put in a perfect package.”

The Golden Cougars started the game angry after seeing linebacker Mark Sutton of Sylmar run onto the field twirling a stuffed Cougar on a string.

The first half was a wild exhibition of offense. The teams combined for 603 yards in and 10 touchdowns. In the first quarter, touchdowns were scored on six of seven possessions and that didn’t include a 95-yard kickoff return by Clifford Johnson of Sylmar.

Sylmar’s defense was so confused that twice the Spartans were forced to call time outs in the first quarter.