By Joe Torosian
(San Marino)–For the first time since 1988 San Marino is going to the CIF Finals, but they had to survive two late touchdowns, and a final Summit series, before advancing to the Central Division championship with a 35-30 victory on Friday night.
In a game of big plays the Titans took control in the first half with a 21-10 lead. The teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter, but it was Mark Wicke’s 1-yard scoring run that gave San Marino a 35-17 lead with 7:54 to play.
Time to pop the champagne?
Not quite.
SkyHawks’ quarterback Cade Sparks rallied his team with a pair of touchdown passes to Damian Alloway to make it a 5-point game with 2:36 to play.
Having burned through all of its timeouts Summit went for the onside kick and recovered at the Titans 49.
Sparks’ first pass went down the middle of the field and was nearly intercepted by Wicke. Stephen Carr carried for 3-yards on the next play. On third down a pass to Carr was tipped and fell incomplete. Then on fourth down the pass down the sideline was tipped away by Wicke.
Game over.
The SkyHawks took three plays to get on the board in the first quarter. Sparks hit Ronald Draper II on a 19-yard touchdown pass.
San Marino answered back in five plays with JP Shohfi taking a slip-screen 46-yards to paydirt. After a Summit field goal, Shofhi put his on top 14-10 when scored on a 9-yard pass from Carson Glazier.
Glazier, who fired four touchdowns passes on the night to improve his season total to 43, hit on a 26-yard strike Aiden Santino with a minute to play in the first half. The senior wide receiver caught the ball at the SkyHawk five and then dragged a defender across the goal line. The touchdown gave his team an 11-point lead but irritated an ankle injury that left him on crutches in the second half.
The third quarter opened with another Sparks to Alloway touchdown. This one came from 34-yards out. The Titans responded with Shohfi beating double coverage for a 56-yard touchdown that made it 28-17.
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