Norwalk Bends But Does Not Break, Continues Two Different Streaks

By Loren Kopff

There was a time not too long ago when John Glenn’s football team couldn’t score against Norwalk in the hunt for the Mayor’s Trophy, a.k.a. “The Big Game”. As a result, this rivalry has been heavily dominated by the city’s western high school.
Last Friday night in front of yet another capacity-filled Excelsior Stadium, the home site for both schools, the “visiting” Lancers needed all but one minute of the game to preserve a 42-35 hard fought victory that kept the team undefeated in six games this season. In addition, the top ranked team in the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section Southern Division, has won seven straight in the series, the longest such streak in the history of these two city institutions. But wait, there’s more. The 77 combined points are the most ever, as are the 42 points scored by Norwalk and the 35 by Glenn. But, all of those records don’t even come close to easing the pain that is once again filled within everyone associated with John Glenn High School. The Eagles never led but rallied from deficits of 22 and 21 points to keep the game from being a blowout.
“That trophy belongs with us this year,” said John Glenn head coach Anthony Wilson. “We schemed and we exposed them. No one had scored 35 points on them this whole season and we held them to under 50. That’s tough to swallow because this whole week, we had high hopes. We had good feelings about this game because they were overlooking us. We thought we were going to squeak away with one.”
Norwalk began in typical fashion, scoring on its opening play which ended when senior fullback Davion Edwards went up the middle for a 35-yard touchdown run a little over two minutes into the game. It would be the only score of the first quarter; a sign of things to come as far as the Eagles defense was concerned.
After Glenn was stopped on its only possession of the first quarter, the Lancers engineered one of its famous long drives of close to seven minutes, which ended when senior wing back Adrian Gonzales went around the right side for 16 yards. Over three minutes later, Edwards added a one-yard run for his second touchdown of the night and Norwalk was up 22-0.
But on the first play after the kickoff, the Eagles went to the air in grand fashion when senior quarterback Jose Escobar launched an 80-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Dejon Bernard. All of the momentum seemed to be going in Glenn’s way when Norwalk was forced to punt. However, Edwards recovered a fumble and the turnover led to a two-yard score from junior wing back Billy Moore with 3:42 left in the first half.
”It’s a rivalry, so anything is going to happen in a rivalry,” said Norwalk head coach Jesse Ceniceros. “But we were up 28-7 at halftime and to be honest, our kids just were out of shape. I don’t know if it was the humidity and I don’t want to make excuses but we came out [in the second half] and we looked dead out there. We looked tired. They’re a scrappy team and I give them a lot of credit. They have a lot of good athletes there.”
Glenn (3-4 overall, 0-3 in the Suburban league) opened the second half with an eight-play, 65-yard drive which was capped off by a 10-yard run from senior running back Brandon Kelly. Then the first of three fumbles, a rarity for Norwalk’s offense, led to an 11-yard touchdown run from Kelly with 7:05 remaining in the stanza. All of a sudden, it was a 28-21 lead for the Lancers but they promptly got one of the scores back on the ensuing kickoff when Gonzales took it back 55 yards on what appeared to be a trick play gone bad on Glenn’s part.
“They had their returner all the way up in the field and we tried to kick it way over his head and tried to run down and get it,” Wilson said. “But we ended up chipping it right to him. They got away with an easy one.”
“They’re a much improved team but again, we gave them the big opportunities,” Ceniceros said. “We gave them hope. I told the kids, anytime you give any team any hope, no matter what the records are, especially in a rivalry game, anything can happen.”
The Lancers doubled up on its lead early in the fourth quarter when Moore scored from a yard out, then added a two-point conversion. But again, the Eagles had more tricks up their sleeves and 34 seconds later, a wide open Escobar on the left side of the field caught a 39-yard pass from Bernard. After sophomore defensive back Vincent Watkins recovered the second Norwalk fumble on the first play after the Escobar touchdown, Glenn took two minutes off the clock to score again, this time an eight-yard pass from Escobar to senior wide receiver Rhamad Green. With 6:47 left in the game, it was now a one possession game and the Glenn faithful were sensing an upset.
“Basically we were going to make Dejon an athlete,” Wilson said. “He can throw the ball, run the ball…anybody who is going to try to cover #1, when they break out of the huddle, they’re asking where is he at? We were thinking of doing a reverse and no one is going to get Escobar and assume he’s going to go out to get a pass. It was basically the boost for us that we needed.”
“If we would have knocked them out like we should have and we normally do when we’re in shape and we’re on full steam, it could have easily been a 60-7 game,” Ceniceros said. “You have bad games and I’m glad we had our bad game and now we know what we need to work on and we’ll improve.”
Glenn had one more chance to tie the game after senior defensive back Ashtin Simmons recovered the third Norwalk fumble. But Escobar was incomplete on three straight passes and the Lancers took over with 61 seconds remaining in the game. Escobar was 10 of 21 for 211 yards and Green caught half of the completions for 101 yards. Norwalk had not allowed a 200-yard passer this season and the 339 yards in total offense from Glenn was the second highest allowed by the Lancers defense this season.
“You have to keep coming at them,” Wilson said. “They’re not very conditioned as they think. You have to keep smacking them in the mouth. They’re definitely not a number one ranked team.
“We wanted to throw the ball but we obviously wanted them to respect the run,” Wilson added. “They’re very vulnerable to the pass. Anybody that wants to beat [Norwalk], they’re going to throw the ball and that’s what we did.”
The Eagles, who have finished the hard part of their schedule, will host winless Artesia tonight on their homecoming. Glenn is seeking its first playoff berth since 2002 when the team went 4-6-1 overall and finished in a tie for third place in the league.
All of Norwalk’s 462 yards came on the ground, led by Gonzales, who carried the ball 31 times for 238 yards. Edwards added 129 yards on 14 carries and Moore chimed in with 82 yards on 18 touches.
“He’s just a warrior,” Ceniceros said of Gonzales. “You look at him run and he’s 165 pounds and runs like he’s 265 pounds. I can’t say anymore about the guy. Tonight he just really impressed me and showed me and his teammates the way to play football.”
The Lancers visit Cerritos tonight in their final road game of the season.