Wilcox comes back, falls short at end

MISSION VIEJO — A horrible half and a game-changing call. That's what the football team and coaching staff of Wilcox-Santa Clara faced at halftime of its CIF Division 2-A championship game with Scripps Ranch-San Diego Saturday.

Somehow, the Chargers kept their wits and composure, even taking a late lead, but eventually dropped a 31-28 thriller at Saddleback College.

Talented 6-foot-6 junior quarterback Jax Leatherwood completed his fourth touchdown of the game, a 10-yard inside screen to Dean Paley with 27 seconds to play for the game-winning score, to finish off an impressive 11-play, 80yard drive.

The Chargers (10-5) had scored four unanswered touchdowns, led by the allaround talents of running back Luther Glenn (212 total yards, three touchdowns), to go up 28-24 with 3:20 to play. It was a 1-yard plunge by Glenn, who earlier scored on a 35-yard pass from Armand Johnson (11-for-23, 190 yards) and a 6-yard run.

But Leatherwood (21-for-37, 337 yards) completed six straight passes on the drive, the last to Paley after Scripps Ranch called timeout. Leatherwood finished the season with 3,884 passing yards and 52 touchdowns, five off the San Diego Section record.

He was intercepted on the final drive by Jeramiah Lewis, but after a lot of Wilcox celebrating, it was nullified on a defensive holding call. Wilcox coach Paul Rosa, whose team had a lot of setbacks all day, questioned that call.

“We all thought it was over,” Rosa said. “All of a sudden defensive holding? That was a tough one to swallow. I think with all that excitement it was hard for our guys to get back refocused.”

That wasn't even the most questioned call.

With Scripps up 14-0, Glenn went 1 yard over the left side for what looked to be a touchdown. The ball came free, Johnson went to fall on it, but it squirted out of his hands and out of the end zone for a touchback.

Replays clearly showed Glenn was in the end zone long before the ball came loose.

Adding salt to the wound of the Chargers was that two plays later, Leatherwood found Conor Lawlor for a short pass and the speedy receiver turned it into a 76yard touchdown, making it 21-0, a huge 14-point swing. Lawlor also scored on receptions of 35 and 62 yards.

“I really haven't seen it, but a lot of people have told me it was a touchdown for sure,” Rosa said. “Hey, high school officials are going to make mistakes. We had to get through that. We almost did. It was a heck of a comeback.”

Somehow, the Chargers regrouped at halftime and got a 21-yard touchdown run by Johnson and a 6-yard TD by Glenn to close to 21-13 with 2:29 left in the third.

A 25-yard field goal by Thomas Rohrer gave Scripps Ranch a 24-13 edge with 9:39 left, but again, Wilcox wouldn't go away. Glenn took a pass over the middle, evaded a tackler and sprinted home, to make it 24-21.

“At 21-0 it would have been easy to fold,” said Rosa, whose team overcame a 1-4 start to win nine straight before Saturday's loss. “They showed what they had in them. It was pretty impressive. We just fell a little short.”