After coming back from a 14-point deficit, an East LA touchdown with just seconds left gave the City College football team a tough 21-14 loss on Saturday at La Playa Stadium.
“We were very underprepared for this team,” said sophomore wide receiver Osha Washington (No. 1). “We underestimated them, we thought we were gonna come out and get an easy win.”
The first half looked like a repeat of last week’s game against Allan Hancock when the Huskies marched down the field to score on the game’s opening drive.
The Vaqueros offense couldn’t get into a rhythm until the opening drive of the second half when quarterback Brandon Edwards (No. 8) marched the team down the field for a touchdown. The eight play 63-yard drive was finished off with a 29-yard pass from Edwards to Washington.
On the next drive City College defensive back Diante Lewis-Jolley (No. 23) picked off a pass thrown by East LA quarterback Brian Marty (No. 9).
“We had a lot of momentum coming out of the half,” Edwards said. “I was feeling good about it.”
Edwards and his receivers completed three straight passes to get the offense into scoring position on the next possession, but it was Washington who threw the game-tying touchdown pass. Washington took the hand off on the reverse then stopped to pass when he found teammate Jason-Matthew Sharsh (No. 17), who made a spectacular one handed catch in the endzone.
“It wasn’t a shock,” Washington said about the trick play. “We prepared on that all week.”
After another East LA turnover, there were still six minutes left in the third quarter and the Vaqueros seemed to have all the momentum going their way.
However, the drive stalled and the go-ahead field goal attempt was blocked by the Huskies. City College kicker Blake Levin (No. 41) was hurt on the play and he did not return to the game.
This injury made a big impact later when City College was forced to go for it on fourth down from the 4-yard line since Levin wasn’t available to attempt a field goal.
Rolling to his left with pressure from the defense coming, Edwards tried to force a pass over the middle that was picked off by the Huskies in the endzone.
“That’s just something you gotta understand that you can’t do,” Moropoulos said. “Throwing back across your body late is usually a bad thing.”
With just over four minutes left in the game East LA had the ball backed up at their own 9-yard line. But that changed quickly when Huskies receiver Iheanyi Obinna (No. 5) caught a 51-yard pass down the sideline.
A few plays later the Huskies found themselves on the 5-yard line with just a minute left. On third and goal Marty found a diving William Tanner Rose (No. 17) who made the great catch and managed to get his feet inbounds for the game winning touchdown with just 30 seconds left.
After the game East LA players approached the Vaqueros who were headed to the locker room and began taunting them until the two teams were finally separated.
“That wasn’t very much,” Washington said. “Just a lot of underclass players.”
City College begins league play at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at West LA.
