Last night I witnessed something that hasn't happened in over 25 years. I watch my alma mater, Garfield High School, claim just its second football title in the school's history with a 28-23 win over the University Wildcats at the LA Coliseum.
This would have been written as I watched the game but unfortunately, the chuckle-heads that sit on the Coliseum Commission didn't have enough sense to turn on the wireless internet for the press box, forcing the various members of the local media, who were there to watch Birmingham steamroll Carson in the second game, to use dial-up and air cards to access the net.
So let me recap everything that happened last night as only I can. In the first quarter, the Bulldogs took an early 6-0 lead on a 27-yard rush by Sergio Macedo, completing a 99-yard drive. However, a penalty on the point after forced a replay and the two-point conversion failed. University responded on the ensuing kickoff, as Senior running back Trayone Harris, part of the Wildcats' three-option backfield, took the kickoff 64 yards for a touchdown, giving the Wildcats a 7-6 lead.
In the second, the Bulldogs retook the lead after another time-consuming drive, this time 72 yards, as Eddie Valencia plunged into the end zone from a yard out , then Frankie Diaz, who's been the Bulldogs' workhorse throughout the playoffs, scored on the two-point conversion to make the lead 14-7. But the Wildcats answered back with another big play, this time from Travis Rawls, who scored from 28 yards out to tie the score 14-14 as the half ended. In the second half, the Bulldogs continued their ground pounding. The first series of the third quarter saw the Bulldogs march 45 yards on the ground before Garfield's answer to Doug Flutie, junior quarterback Patrick Vargas, hit Javier Alcantar with a 10-yard pass with 6:50 left in the quarter to take a 21-14 lead.
But the Wildcats weren't done yet. You can just guess what happened on the kick off, again. Harris got the ball at the 29-yard line and ran for daylight, scoring again and tying the game 21-21 with six minutes left to go in the quarter. That was it for the Bulldogs, who took the lead for good on the next series, this time Frankie Diaz breaking free for a 48-yard run and the 28-21 lead with less than five minutes left.
From that point on, it was a defensive stand by the Bulldogs as the fourth quarter began. The Wildcats drove to the Bulldogs' 8-yard line before turning the ball over on downs. After going six-and-out, the Bulldogs got a big stop when Harris, who had been Mr. Automatic for the Wildcats, fumbled the hand-off at the 31-yard line and the Bulldogs recovered.
The Wildcats kept the Bulldogs from gaining any more ground and spent the next six minutes pushing down the field deep into the Bulldogs' red zone. However, with just over a minute left in the game, Lanny Delgado broke up a fourth-down pass attempt into the corner of the end zone to keep the Bulldogs' lead.
The final play of the game gave the Wildcats one last score as Vargas, with five seconds left in the game, took the snap at the 20-yard line and ran back to his own end zone as time ran out to give the Wildcats a safety at the end of the game. And the celebration started at the final gun. Twenty-six years of waiting, and redemption for two heartbreaking Finals losses to Franklin in 1989 and last year's to Eagle Rock were swept away as Coach Lorenzo Hernandez hoisted the Championship Trophy over his head to end the most amazing season in Bulldog history.
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