Warriors hold on with pair of defensive stops
TORRANCE » The West Torrance defense had allowed three touchdowns in the second half, but with the game on the line, the unit came up with two big plays.
On one play, senior linebacker Tyler Schlappatha came through the line and broke up a fourth-and-1 run, forcing Peninsula to turn the ball over on downs.
Later, Kyle Cascalenda intercepted A.J. Maes' pass with approximately two minutes remaining to help West hold on for a 28-21 win over Peninsula.
“I knew they needed yards and I knew they were going to go deep,” Cascalenda said. “I gave them a look like I was pressing and I dropped and made the play. It was a great team win.”
West coach Todd Butler wasn't surprised those two made the key plays.
“Those guys have a ton of confidence; they own the heartbeat of the defense,” he said.
Up until the two big defensive plays, the second half was trending Peninsula's way. The Panthers (2-2) scored on their first three possessions of the second half to make it 28-21.
“I liked the way we came out in the second half,” Peninsula coach David Young said. “We talked about at it halftime that it (in the first half) wasn't our game the way we played and we could play better.
“We played better in the second half, just a couple of shortcomings.”
West (2-1) didn't wait to get things started in the first half, scoring on their first four possessions to take a 28-0 lead into halftime.
Brett James capped an 80-yard drive to start the game with an 18-yard touchdown run. On their next possession, Jackson Sharman found Cascalenda in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown pass.
In the second quarter, Cascalenda took a handoff and went 49 yards for a score. With less than a minute remaining, Sharman and Cascalenda again hooked up, this time for a 7-yard touchdown pass.
“From a discipline and execution point of view, we were really sharp,” Butler said of the first-half offense. “It's a really good defense over there and they weren't giving away, but we made plays.
“We had some opportunities in the second half, but some dropped passes, penalties and things like that ... we have to clean that up. But in the first half, we were great on third down, great on fourth down and played great situational football.”
Peninsula opened the second half with a 4-yard touchdown run by Mason Gonzalez. On the next possession, Maes scored from 7 yards out and cut the deficit in half (28-14) with the twopoint conversion.
The Panthers ended the third quarter with a 33yard touchdown run by Maes, setting the stage for the fourth quarter.
“At halftime our message was clear — that's a really good football team over there. We really respect the job they do and we knew it wasn't over (at halftime),” Butler said. “I think we had to find our way a little bit and we did a great job of closing that fourth quarter out, playing Warrior football. It's a good test for us.”
The teams met last season with Peninsula winning 28-7. Prior to that, their last meeting was in 2013.