Velasco’s Passing Spells Victory For Taft, 21-20

Perhaps the man who stenciled Taft High quarterback Edwin Velasco’s name on the back of his football jersey had a stuttering problem. Or maybe an earthquake hit in the middle.

Whatever the reason, it reads: VELALASCO, on both his home and away uniforms.

An additional syllable to be sure, but Velasco had a little something extra in Friday night’s West Valley League championship game at Pierce College, tossing three touchdown passes as Taft defeated El Camino Real in a thriller, 21-20.

Velasco, a 5-foot-10 senior, completed five of nine passes for 103 yards. A mediocre effort? Hardly. Velasco had thrown one scoring pass all season entering the game, and that came last week.

“I guess I finally got it together,” Velasco deadpanned.

For Taft (5-4, 4-3 in league play), it marked a fourth consecutive league title. El Camino Real (4-5, 3-4) missed an opportunity for its first league title since 1980.

And the Conquistadores missed by inches.

Velasco connected on a 27-yard scoring pass with Daryl (Happy) Cash in the closing moments of the third quarter and Irving Carter scored on a two-point conversion run to give Taft a 21-14 lead, but El Camino Real nearly stole it in the final minutes.

Taking possession at its 33-yard line with 6:33 left, El Camino Real moved to the Taft 10. A key play in the drive was quarterback Tony Bordwell’s third-down swing pass to Brian Astgen, who gained 15 yards and a first down. After the whistle, the Conquistadores received another 15 yards for an unsportsmanlike conduct call against Taft’s Greg Bernard.

Two plays later, on second and eight from the 10, fullback Jamal Anderson slammed through the middle and into the end zone to bring El Camino Real to within a point with 3:04 left. The Conquistadores went for two and the outright title, dusting off a double-option play.

Lining up with a two-back set, Bordwell ran left and pitched to Anderson, who ran into Taft’s Steve Lockridge, Alex Price and Darnell Hendrix at the goal line. Anderson tried to dive over the top, but was stopped just short and thrown backward.

“It was a power-option play,” El Camino Real co-Coach Mike Maio said. “He made the right decision.”

Anderson, who gained a game-high 134 yards in 21 carries and scored two touchdowns, had the option to pitch the ball to the trailing tailback on the play.

“We waited all year for a two-point conversion to run it,” Maio said. “But he did the right thing. Without him, we would never have gotten here.”

Taft was the first team this season to defeat El Camino Real in a game where Anderson gained more than 100 yards but it took Velasco’s magic to do it.