Column: Oaks Christian comes up big (as in big plays) to beat St. Bonaventure
Whatever sophomore quarterback Matt Corral accomplishes the rest of his prep career at Westlake Village Oaks Christian, he will be hard-pressed to top the busted play he turned into a 75-yard touchdown pass Friday night against Ventura St. Bonaventure.
In shotgun formation in the first quarter, Corral watched the snap sail over his head and bounce down to the five-yard line. He calmly retrieved the ball, turned to his right, planted his feet at the one-yard line and fired a perfect spiral to a wide-open Michael Pittman standing at the St. Bonaventure 48. Pittman ran it in for the touchdown as home fans squealed in delight.
“It wasn’t planned for sure,” Pittman said.
Said Coach Jim Benkert: “I whispered to the ref, ‘It’s better to be lucky than good.’”
Oaks Christian (8-0, 1-0) came away with a 48-23 victory in its Marmonte League opener.
With Oaks Christian ranked No. 5 in the Pac-5 Division ahead of powers La Puente Bishop Amat and Long Beach Poly, it remains to be seen whether the Lions deserve that respect. But there certainly is a lot of talent and potential.
Corral, who recently picked up a scholarship offer from USC, knows how to improvise and use his athleticism when needed. He probably should be singing Britney Spears’ “Oops! ... I did it again” after turning another fumbled snap into a three-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. He finished with two touchdowns running and was 15 for 23 passing for 266 yards and one touchdown.
Corral and the USC-bound Pittman, who caught seven passes for 181 yards, have that special bond going between quarterback and receiver.
“Our plan is when things go wrong, he always goes deep to the side I scramble to, and when that happened, I saw him deep and threw it,” Corral said.
Then there’s 6-foot-7 junior Colby Parkinson, a three-sport athlete who plays tight end and defensive end for the Lions. He had a six-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter by simply sticking out his arms and capturing the attempted pass by St. Bonaventure quarterback Darius Vines.
“I saw his eyes,” Parkinson said. “It [the ball] was right there.”
Gil’Scott Jackson continued his improvement, rushing for 179 yards and scoring two touchdowns. Big plays were key to Oaks Christian’s victory. Jackson had a 79-yard run and Pittman had catches of 75 and 58 yards.
St. Bonaventure (5-3, 0-1) exposed some weaknesses Oaks Christian must fix on defense. Chris Santoyo rushed for 138 yards. Vines had touchdown passes of 53 yards to Jacob Bravo and 28 yards to Moy Pedroza. And the Lions had 11 penalties.
Oaks Christian is 0-2 in the playoffs since moving to the Pac-5 in 2012. There’s still worked to be done, but an 8-0 start isn’t bad.
Twitter: @LATSondheimer
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