Northwod Coach JC Clarke talks to his players after a regular season league game. (File photo OC Sports Zone, Tim Burt).
Sixty-three points!
That’s how many points Northwood High School’s football team had to score to win its CIF Division 8 playoff opener Friday night.
The Timberwolves won the wild, back and forth game 63-56 Friday night at Monrovia to advance into the quarterfinal round of the playoffs Friday night at Irvine Stadium.
Northwood (10-1) will host San Andreas League champion Grand Terrace (8-3).
“I have never been in a game like this,” Northwood Coach J.C. Clarke told OC Sports Zone Monday.
Clarke has been coaching many years as an assistant and has been the Timberwolves coach the last two years, leading them to the Division 11 title last season. Northwood won its second straight league title this year.
“It was the most points (of) any times I’ve coached scored,” Clarke said. “Usually at 42 points you set the offense to bed; we needed every single point.
“Our offensive players and offensive staff were fantastic. It was a great performance by our offense. And Sun Tao, who missed eight games this year came up with a huge pass defection which was then intercepted by our all-CIF linebacker Danial Kamel to seal the victory.
“My hat is off to Monrovia players and coaches who played from behind the whole game and never let up.”
Quarterback Eugene Miyata led the Northwood offense, completing 17 of 26 passes for 280 yards and six touchdowns. Workhorse senior running back Adam Harper had another outstanding game, rushing for 195 yards on 32 carries and three touchdowns.
Andrew Penrod hauled in seven catches for 164 yards and four touchdowns and Ahmed Kazi had five catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns for the Timberwolves.
Northwood held a 42-28 lead at halftime before Monrovia (8-3) battled back to tie the game 42-42 in the third quarter.
But Northwood countered. After a long kickoff return by Harper, Miyata connected with Ahmad Kazi for the go-ahead score, putting the Timberwolves ahead 49-42.
Monrovia answered with a touchdown, but could not convert the extra point so Northwood held a 49-48 lead.
It was Northwood’s time to score early in the fourth quarter. Miyata connected with Penrod for a TD, giving Northwood a 56-48 lead. However Monrovia scored and converted a 2-point conversion to tie the game 56-56 with two minutes left.
The Timberwolves answered again.
Miyata threw a 65-yard TD pass to Penrod, who was able to break a tackle and go down the sidelines for the go-ahead and game-winning touchdown.
The defense sealed the win with a big play.
Tao Sun deflected a pass that was intercepted by Kamel to seal the victory.
The winner of Friday’s game advances to the semifinals against the winner of the game between Crean Lutheran and Vista Del Lago. Crean Lutheran Coach Rick Curtis and Clarke have coached together and against each other for years.
(Northwood football provided highlights of the game for this story).
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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