PHOTOS: Northwood steps up against Lakewood to capture second straight CIF title

Adam Harper (middle) holds the CIF championship plaque for Northwood after the win over Lakewood. (Photos courtesy Mark Bausman, For OC Sports Zone).

Northwood High School’s football team wasn’t intimidated about the challenges of competing in Division 8 for the CIF playoffs after capturing the Division 11 crown last season.

Rather, they became determined to bring home the second football title in school history.

The Timberwolves, moved up three divisions because of their success last year, put on another fantastic effort Saturday night, defeating Lakewood 35-14 in the Division 8 championship in front of about 3,000 fans at Lakewood. All the fans sat on the one side of the stadium with bleachers.

“We’re much better, our record is much better, we played four league teams that beat us last year, Portola, Laguna Hills, Irvine and Dana Hills, we beat all those teams, this is just a much better team,” Northwood Coach JC Clarke said after the win.

“They’re flying to the ball like my 2,000 Irvine team did, I love that, little guys just flying to the ball and Coach (Phil) Roh and Z (Zaverio) Brenner) made our offense much more versatile this year.”

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Senior running back Adam Harper stepped up big again, rushing for 175 yards on 26 carries and scored on touchdown runs of 60, 4 and 5 yards. The last score put the Timberwolves ahead 35-14 with 2:35 left and ended any hopes that Lakewood had of making a comeback. Lakewood was trying to bring home the school’s first league title and came into the game with a five-game winning streak.

“We knew they were going to be a good team,” Harper said. “We pride ourselves on the run and they got a great D-line, so it was a struggle in the first half, but Eugene (quarterback Miyata) was able to step up and throw the ball around. We went back to what we did best, run the ball in the second half. When they were starting to make a run in the fourth quarter, we relied on the run. We did well, our offense played well, our defense played well. It was an all-around good game.”

Miyata had 130 yards passing and threw a 14-yard TD pass to Ahmad Kazi on Northwood’s first drive. After Harper’s second TD run, he connected with Andrew Penrod on an 82-yard TD play to put Northwood ahead 21-0 midway through the second game.

Lakewood (8-6) tried to get back into the game late in the first half after taking over at midfield. The Lancers got to the 1-yard line but were unable to punch the ball in, despite a Northwood penalty. Lakewood had eight tries but came up short and was backed up to the 7-yard line following an illegal procedure penalty. On a fourth down play, a pass was incomplete as time expired.

Northwood (13-1) went into the locker-room with a 21-0 lead.

“That was huge, I feel that was a huge momentum change for this game,” said Kazi who was in on some of the plays in that drive as a linebacker. “They had eight plays inside the 10 and didn’t score. Some things didn’t go our way in the second half, but our offense was able to overcome some mistakes and we took it in the end.

“Nobody saw us here and nobody even saw us winning league, but we knew with the guys we got, we could do it. We always practice well and play hard. We’re fast and we fly to the ball. We may not be bigger than the other teams but we play Northwood football.”

Lakewood, under first year coach Justin Utupo, continued to battle in the second half and cut the lead to 21-7 when quarterback Brayden Dowden connected with Kaleb Foster on a 72-yard TD pass.

But later in the quarter, Lakewood, backed up to its own 1-yard line, was forced to punt. Harper fielded the punt and scampered 33 yards to the 4-yard line, setting up his TD score.

Dowden then hooked up with Ethan Sharp on a 65-yard TD pass to cut the lead to 28-14. But Northwood’s defense stiffened after that.

Dowden passed for two touchdowns and 187 yards. Foster was the Lancers leading rusher with 54 yards on 12 carries. Lakewood came into the game with a five-game winning streak.

But in the end, Northwood’s experience of being in a final may have been an advantage.

“We did great, we executed perfectly on both sides of the ball,” said Miyata, the quarterback. “Our O-line did their thing. We knew coming in they had a great D-line and we contained them perfectly. Defensive wise we did our thing too, we were good.”

Miyata also picked up a couple key first downs with runs, finishing with 33 yards rushing.

CIF Commissioner Rob Wigod presented the championship trophy to the Timberwolves along with CIF official Paul Caldera.

Northwood moves on to face Kennedy of Delano in the 4-AA regional Friday night.

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Veteran assistant JC Clarke finds a home at Northwood.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com