To say things looked bleak for Orange Lutheran’s football team Saturday night at Sierra Canyon was being nice. Down 19 points at halftime, the Lancers were not blocking, not tackling and showing little energy. Their bus could have started warming up for the long ride home.
Never doubt the perseverance or pride of teenage athletes.
“I believed,” Orange Lutheran linebacker Talanoa Ili said.
The Lancers (4-1) regrouped and scored 26 consecutive points in the second half to defeat Sierra Canyon 33-26 in their final game before starting Trinity League play on Oct. 4.
Sierra Canyon (2-3), facing its third Trinity League team this season, played about as well as it has performed in any game in the first 24 minutes. Havon Finney Jr. had a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown. Wyatt Becker ran 19 yards for a touchdown. Jaxsen Stokes ran 29 yards for a touchdown. Jonah Nadley caught a three-yard touchdown pass. The Trailblazers’ defense wasn’t allowing big plays and was pressuring quarterback TJ Lateef. Madden Riordan ended the half with his seventh interception.
But nothing went right for Sierra Canyon in the second half. The Trailblazers twice lost fumbles, struggled moving the ball and let Lateef take charge. After a 41-yard field goal by Aiden Migirdichian, Lateef scored on a three-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 26-16. Steve Chavez scored on a two-yard run with 9:12 left after a Sierra Canyon fumble. Then the Lancers took the lead with 7:50 left on a Chris Flores Jr. four-yard touchdown reception.
Sierra Canyon drove to the 13-yard line with 2:20 left, but on fourth down, the potential game-tying drive ended when Orange Lutheran’s Izley Manutai deflected the pass for an incompletion.
“All we needed was a little confidence,” Manutai said of the second-half comeback.
