Lehman's Charles Williams tip-toes the sideline against Edison. He scored from 33-yards out in the third quarter to help the Lobos to a 28-21 win over the Golden Bears. (Photo by Judy Cooper)
By MARK CAUL
The Lehman football team made life more difficult for itself than the Lobos needed to Friday night, but were still able to exit Burbank Sports Complex with a 28-21 win over San Antonio Edison.
At times it looked like a carbon copy of last week’s season-opening loss against St. Michael’s as Lehman committed enough penalties (17) to last the whole season and had two very untimely turnovers.
In the end though, it was Jaylon Hardaway’s 20-yard touchdown run on a reverse with just over five minutes remaining in the game that broke a 21-21 tie to give the Lobos the victory.
“It was a play we ran a lot in practice this week so I was prepared for it,” Hardaway said. “I saw a hole and had a few blockers ahead of me so the play worked out perfect.”
Lehman’s Lawrence Romero snuffed out any chances Edison had of tying the game by leaping high in the air to knock away a pass intended for Jonathan Alvarez on fourth down late in the contest.
“We had to piece this one together but we’ll certainly take it,” Lehman head coach Steve Davis said. “It was still pretty frustrating to continue to commit the same mistakes over and over. But our kids stayed the course and fought hard to get a well deserved win tonight.”
It looked like the Lobos (1-1) were going to go up 21-0 early in the second quarter, but Edison intercepted a Matt Anguiano pass at the Golden Bears’ 2-yard line.
Edison cut the gap to 14-7 at halftime, but Charles Williams burst up the middle for a 33-yard touchdown run to give Lehman a 21-7 lead with 5 minutes, 45 seconds remaining in the third quarter, and the Lobos appeared to be on their way to an easy road win.
But Edison (1-1) stormed back six plays later to close the gap to 21-14 as Sergio Neaves found Joe Alvarez down the left sidelines with a 21-yard touchdown pass, and the Golden Bears cashed in on a Lobo fumble a few plays later with an 8-yard touchdown run by Seth Henry to knot the score 21-21.
Henry’s touchdown run followed an ill-timed roughing the passer penalty against the Lobos to turn an Edison third down play into a first down at the Lobo 11-yard line.
“We did a good job of fighting back to tie the game but their team made some plays when they needed to and that was the bottom line,” Edison head coach Albert Torres said. “You have to give them all the credit in the world. They could have folded the tent after we tied the game, but their guys just didn’t quit.”
Senior Peter Gutierrez hauled in scoring passes of 17 and 35 yards from Anguiano in the first quarter to put the Lobos up 14-0.
“I just tried to go out there and make some plays,” said Gutierrez. “We had a really good few days of practice so everybody was ready to play tonight.”
Harvest Trammell led Lehman with 71 yards rushing on 13 attempts. He also had three receptions for 24 yards and completed two passes for 28 yards during the game.
Lehman (1-1) will face Austin Crockett on Thursday night at Burger Center.
