Lightning, Milk and Cereal

By Michael Ashcraft --

In the last two minutes of the game, Lighthouse Christian Academy scored two touchdowns to send New Designs Charter home with a message:

You may have run up the score in the first half. But we wore you down, bruised you up and dominated you in the second half.

Despite a stellar finish, Lighthouse lost 28-36 to the Downtown LA school.

Senior Zion Jenkins played at 480 volts. Asked whimsically by a reporter if he had swallowed a lightning bolt before the game, Zion didn't miss a beat: "Yeah, with some cereal and some milk."

Early in the fist quarter, Zion found a hole and bolted 60 yards for a touchdown to make it 6-8. Before the end of the first half, Zion made a critical tackle to stop the Cardinals for making their fourth TD.

In the second half, Zion made impossible catches for huge gains. In one, he bobbled the ball under the cover of two players and caught the bounce as he was falling to the ground.

"It's my senior year, and I have to give it all I got for my teammates, and I can't hold anything back," Zion said.

Coaches cackled over the fireworks finish. While the Cardinals looked bedraggled, tired and in pain, towards the end of the game, Lighthouse looked like they were just getting started.

"If there was another quarter in this football game, I think they'd fold. It was game over," bragged Coach Justin Kayne to his team. "In the second half, we scored 22, they scored 12. You guys brought it to them. A few missed tackles, they got a couple touchdowns, it would have been a completely different game. That was the greatest response I've ever seen in my life of coaching. Incredible effort."

What doomed the Saints was the the Cardinal's pull play, which LCA was unfamiliar with. That and some fast and fancy footwork of just a couple of guys. The Cardinals scored three TDs in the first half (with conversions) and two on some breakthrough runs in the second half.

Lighthouse eventually learned to stop New Designs. They ground them down, charging through the line and sacking quarterback. Except for the two mega-yard breakthrough runs to touchdown, New Designs couldn't move the ball.

Big men Alex Brick and Nile Hosni battered their line. Kirollos Abdalla trucked players several times. QB Justice Neos came to life in the fourth quarter, connecting with passes and making a scintillating run for one of the touchdowns (helped by a brutal block from Zion). Justice also stripped the ball from New Designs and ran for a touchdown.

Kicker Exjani Rojas kept the Cardinals pinned back with rocket launches on kickoff and punt. He also showed his soccer speed, catching runners that others couldn't catch.

"We have a lot to build on," Coach Justin said.