Christopher High and host Pacific Grove ran rampant up and down the turf Friday night. The two teams enjoyed the barnburner so much so that neither side knew when to leave.
They even shook hands twice.
The Cougars rallied to overcome one double-digit deficit but fell seven points shy of doing it a second time, losing 41-35 in a thrilling nonleague encounter with the Breakers.
Jake Speed’s interception of CHS quarterback Sterling Montgomery at the 1:23 mark of the fourth quarter all but locked up a Breakers’ victory. All that was left was to do – kneel the clock out.
Easier said than done, apparently.
Three kneel downs by quarterback Luke Lowell went off without a hitch. The fourth, well, that turned into quite a fiasco.
A delay of game was called on the Breakers with 0.03 seconds on the clock. Replay fourth down.
But instead of just simply kneeling down, Lowell sprinted to his right and back about 10 yards, where he was swarmed by the entire Pacific Grove team before the play had been blown dead. A 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct foul was issued. It appeared that Christopher was going to be awarded an untimed down on offense.
However, a disagreement on where the ball should be placed, led to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty assessed to CHS.
“Before all of that, (the officials) marked the ball too early. They should have been more aware of the game clock,” CHS head coach Tim Pierleoni said. “Then Pacific Grove made a mistake by not just kneeling it. Truthfully, we made a mistake then by not stripping the ball.
“But as far as I’m concerned, that ball was on about the 40-yard line when the penalty was called. So if it’s a 15-yard penalty, then the ball should be placed on the 25. But they explained to me that they had already marked off the penalty. It didn’t make any sense.”
The untimed down was never played and the two teams cordially shook hands at midfield.
“The game cannot end on a penalty,” Pierleoni said. “We all know that one more play, especially in high school, can end up being a touchdown. My deal is this, we had the right to battle right there with one more play. I wanted to be heard. I will battle for my team until the end.”
The quirky and chaotic climax characterized the entire 48 minutes, putting an exclamation point on a wild affair that had three lead changes and more than 700 yards of offense.
Pacific Grove (2-0) executed a perfect onside kick to begin the game, and before two minutes had clicked by, the Breakers were up 6-0 when Lowell hit Jordan Borne on a 16-yard slant.
Christopher was ready on the ensuing kickoff, and when Pacific Grove tried a second straight onside kick, Cougars up-man Marcus Delgado returned it to the Breakers 9-yard line.
Three plays later, Raul Meza took it in from 1-yard out to lift CHS ahead 7-6.
Two plays into Pacific Grove’s next set of downs, Keenan Selbicky cut loose for a 58-yard score. The 2-point try worked and the Breakers led 14-7.
Lowell and Borne hooked up once more in the first quarter to make it 20-7 Pacific Grove.
A 25-yard connection from Montgomery (33-of-51 for 407 yards) to Tyler Fhurong (five catches, 76 yards) and a scintillating 88-yard scoring strike to Rayshon Mills – which came one play after Max Sanford put the kibosh on a Breakers drive with an interception – propelled CHS to a 21-20 halftime advantage.
“I like the way the kids responded to being down,” Pierleoni said. “I thought the kids played well. But then again, we came back in the second half and let them get on top of us again.”
Josh Roman put Pacific Grove ahead on the third play of the second half, taking a direct snap on third-and-2 and scampering untouched for 68 yards.
Forrest Compton intercepted Montgomery and went 89 yards to the house to provide the Breakers with another two-score cushion, 35-21, with 5:41 to play in the third.
Christopher turned the ball over four times in the game resulting in 14 Pacific Grove points.
“We played our hearts out. We didn’t stop the whole time,” two-way lineman Mark Riffle said. “We just need to cut down on mistakes.”
Mills’ 8-yard plunge made it 35-28 with three minutes to play in the third, and after CHS forced Pacific Grove three-and-out, Montgomery found Cole Rhodes (12 catches for 85 yards) for 17-yard touchdown to tie matters at 35-35 with nine minutes to play.
On cue, Selbicky countered with a 52-yard run to pay dirt and the six points that stood as the margin of victory.
CHS (0-3) got the ball back on its own 9-yard line with 2:40 remaining and moved the ball into Breakers’ territory before Speed’s interception on the 33.
“There are some really positive things to take from this,” Pierleoni said. “The kids played really hard.”
Christopher travels to San Jose to face Leland next week.
NOTES: CHS running back Zach Almash had 91 yards on 19 touches…Mills grabbed six catches for 163 yards…Selbicky finished with 129 yards on 11 caries…Pacific Grove rushed for 217 yards…Lowell (5-of-14 for 49 yards) did not complete a pass in the second half as the Cougars cornerbacks adjusted to the deep attack.
Junior varsity: After watching the film and adding up the stats it was amazing what I came up with.
Quarterback Anthony Sammut was 20-of-39 for 403 yards and six touchdowns in a CHS junior varsity 47-33 victory over Pacific Grove on Friday night.
Included in the 403 yards were Bryant Huynn’s four catches for 200 yards and two touchdowns. Both of Huynn’s touchdowns were long passes – one for 94 yards and the other for 84 yards.
Kyle Erickson had two catches for 42 yards and two touchdowns. Raul Tovar had 137 total yards with two touchdowns in the air and one on the ground to seal the win.
The defense played well, coming up with two interceptions – one by Thomas Ellis and the other by TJ Cox. There were two quarterback sacks by Brian Easton and Jacob Zimmerman.
The defensive line of John Mejia, Cory Andrews, Jesse Brown, Jared Huddleston, Anthony Bonino, Tom Madruga, and Eric Cabrera did a good job plugging up the running lanes.
