Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club: St. Francis recovering from Hail Mary defeat to league rival

GLENDALE — GLENDALE — The Glendale YMCA Quarterback Club, in its 73rd year, meets Tuesdays at the Elk’s Lodge. The following are odds and ends from the seventh meeting of the year.

TOUGH ENDING FOR GOLDEN KNIGHTS

In his nearly 20 years of coaching, St. Francis Coach Jim Bonds had never experienced a falling victim to a Hail Mary to end a contest. That changed Thursday during St. Francis’ Angelus League home game against Harvard-Westlake.

With St. Francis and Harvard-Westlake tied at 21 with 1.6 seconds left, Harvard-Westlake quarterback Noah Rothman threw a 48-yard touchdown pass that was deflected to wide receiver Alex Barnum to conclude a 27-21 win.

“The ball tipped off one of our defenders and to their player,” said Bonds, whose team dropped to 4-3, 0-2 in league entering Friday’s home league contest against Cathedral (7-0, 2-0). “I’ve never been on the losing end of that and it’s no fun.

“We figured just bat the ball down and go to overtime for a second straight game. When they caught the ball, we were in shock. We’ve lost a couple of tough league games and now we get back to work against Cathedral. It’s going to be a challenge to get back up and now we go up against Cathedral.”

VAQS FINALLY GET TURNOVERS

It had been a month since Glendale Community College recovered a fumble or had an interception. In its 24-19 road defeat against Antelope Valley in a Pacific Conference American Division game Saturday, Glendale had an interception and recovered a pair of fumbles.

It left Glendale Coach John Rome pleased despite the defeat.

“It had been a long time, but we got our first interception of the season and had the two fumble recoveries that gave us a 13-7 lead at halftime,” said Rome, whose team is 1-5, 0-3 in the division. “That was our best first half of the season.

“We just came up short in the second half.”

Clinton Hewitt and Mohamed Inoussa had fumble recoveries for Glendale, which had an interception from Deamom Thompson.

Glendale will take on visiting L.A. Southwest in a division game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Sartoris Field.

FORMER CHARGER ADDRESSES CLUB

Shawne Merriman enjoyed a superb career in the National Football League after being drafted in the first round (12th overall) by the San Diego Chargers out of the University of Maryland. Merriman, 31, appeared in three Pro Bowls and was named the league’s defensive player of the year.

Merriman was the guest speaker at the club Tuesday, recalling some memorable teammates and opponents throughout his career.

“I give credit to my coaches who took care of me,” said Merriman, who played for San Diego and the Buffalo Bills from 2005-12. “With football, you learn a lot about adversity, obstacles and injuries.

“I learned from people like Junior Seau, who was a mentor to me. I learned a lot from players like Ray Lewis and LaVar Arrington. I learned from how they played the game and studied them.”

Merriman led the league in sacks in 2006 with 17 and finished his career with 257 tackles in 75 games.

Merriman, who retired in 2013, now works as an analyst for Fox Sports.

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Charles Rich, charles.rich@latimes.com

Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich