South San Francisco (2-3, 1-0 in PAL-Ocean) handed visiting Sequoia (4-1, 0-1) its first loss of the season Friday night, 36-28.
As the lights illuminated Clifford Field and the fans cheered their schools, the game progressed into the anticipated tight showdown.
The Warriors led the Cherokees by seven entering the second half until Sequoia quarterback Mikey Taylor ran it into the end zone with eight minutes left in the game to tie it at 21.
Taylor rushed for another touchdown three minutes later to put Sequoia ahead, but not for long. No sooner had the Cherokee fans wound down from their most recent score that South City's supporters revved up. The source of their joy was Orlando Garcia's long kickoff return for a touchdown, tying the game 28-28.
“The kickoff return after we got down (was huge)," South City coach Frank Moro said. “There were some big plays. Our defensive line played well and forced them to run the ball because of our defensive backs. It was a good all-around effort.”
South City scored again four minutes later on Keven Cunha's 53-yard run. The Warriors attempt to go for two was successful and put them up by eight, lessening the Cherokees' odds.
They would not give up, however.
Taylor’s connections with Liam Cotter propelled them forward and kept Cherokee hopes alive, with 24 seconds still remaining. Sequoia needed only to travel six yards to potentially tie the game (with a touchdown and 2-point conversion).
The Cherokees nearly pulled it off with 14 ticks left, but a ballcarrier was ruled to have lost possession before he crossed the plane of the goal line, giving South City the ball.
“You hate to see it end like that. The part of me that’s used to TV, college and pro football wants to see the camera angle that shows that there was a fumble,” Sequoia coach Rob Poulos said. “If one of their guys sticks you in the backfield for a loss, you can live with that. They beat you on that play. But when you get a play like this, you don’t feel the resolution of it. You just feel that it’s suddenly over. You’d rather see the clean ‘we punch it in' or they stop us. Not the ‘we think he got across.’”
South City then melted the final seconds off the clock for its first league victory, while at the same time handing Sequoia its first league loss.
“We’ve got to play Menlo next week," Moro said. "We have to come (Saturday) morning and watch the film. We already have a scouting report all ready to go so we’ll introduce that. What’s nice is that (Menlo and Sequoia) are similar. They run the ball with a spread offense. We don’t have to re-invent the wheel."
Sequoia is at Jefferson on Friday.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about playing four quarters of football and we didn’t,” Poulos said. “We had some breakdowns. And as we’re realizing, when you’re playing at the top level, that’s going to cost you. It cost us this one. We need to minimize our mistakes if we want to get somewhere.”
