TAFT RALLIES IN LOSS ALMOST OVERCOMES 35-POINT DEFICIT VENICE 35, TAFT 27.Byline: LINDSAY CZARNECKI Special to the Daily News VENICE -- If Taft of Woodland Hills could have played the opening half even half as good as it played in the second half, it might have opened its 2007 season with a victory. Instead, the Toreadors came up short of a miraculous mi·rac·u·lous adj. 1. Of the nature of a miracle; preternatural. 2. So astounding as to suggest a miracle; phenomenal: a miraculous recovery; a miraculous escape. 3. comeback in a 35-27 loss Friday night against Venice. Down 35-0 in the third quarter, the Toreadors scored four unanswered touchdowns to close the Gondoliers lead to eight and had the chance of a lifetime after a Venice fumble with fumble with vt fus → manosear a little more than a minute to play. But the Toreadors couldn't convert after a costly spiking by sophomore quarterback Bam Goodall, who replaced senior Exavier Johnson (who transferred in the offseason to Birmingham), that moved Taft back to the 50-yard line. Venice, already one game seasoned in 2007 after enjoying a 41-14 rout over San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. last Friday, left off where it started a week ago with a big offensive output in the first half, taking a 28-0 lead into the locker room. It was a rude awakening in the first half for a Taft team that was playing in its first game of the season, which was also the first for head coach Matt Kerstetter, who took over for 15-year coach Troy Starr (who took a position with the University of Florida University of Florida is the third-largest university in the United States, with 50,912 students (as of Fall 2006) and has the eighth-largest budget (nearly $1.9 billion per year). UF is home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. ). "When we started getting all 11 guys to do their jobs that's when we started racking up the yards," Kerstetter said. "We challenged them in the locker room at halftime. We were so close, we just needed to get all 11 guys doing the right thing." The effects were tremendous as the Toreadors got back into the game with trick plays A trick play, also known as a gadget play, is a play in American football that uses deception and unorthodox strategies to fool the opposing team. Trick plays are highly risky, usually with a large potential for a loss of yards or turnover, but the payoff is often high with that stifled sti·fle 1 v. sti·fled, sti·fling, sti·fles v.tr. 1. To interrupt or cut off (the voice, for example). 2. the Venice defense. With nine minutes left in the game Taft was able to score back-to-back touchdowns by Jarrell Holland and Nick Bruce after a Venice fumble. "You like to think that you can focus and finish a game but Taft didn't want any part in that," Venice coach Angelo Gasco said. But in the first half, with the newness taking its toll on Taft, Venice wasted no time getting on the board by using six plays to score the opening touchdown in the first two minutes of play on a 1-yard run by Curtis McNeal. McNeal left the game with a possible concussion concussion Period of nervous-function impairment that results from relatively mild brain injury, often with no bleeding in the cerebral cortex. It causes brief unconsciousness, followed by mental confusion and physical difficulties. , but not before rushing for threetouchdowns. In the first half, Taft produced just onefirst down and a nice punt return In American and Canadian football a punt return is one of the punt receiving team's options to respond to a punt. A player (usually a second or third string wide receiver or running back) positioned many yards from the line of scrimmage will attempt to catch or pick up the ball by DJ Morgan. lindsay.czarnecki@dailynews.com (818) 713-3607 |
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