Gable Wins Individual Battle; Brookins, Sylmar Win Game

Stopping North Hollywood High’s Leon Gable proved to be no small task for Sylmar on Friday night.

The 5-foot-6 running back accumulated 316 yards of the Huskies’ 328 total in the East Valley League game at Sylmar.

But Sylmar found the best defense to be its offense in a 40-20 victory. The Spartans improved to 7-0, 5-0 in league play. North Hollywood is 4-3 and 3-2.

Gable, who rushed for 271 yards in 34 carries and caught a 35-yard touchdown pass on the game’s final play, scored all three North Hollywood touchdowns, including two in the first half that gave the Huskies a 14-7 advantage.

But Sylmar scored 33 unanswered points to take a commanding 40-14 lead late in the third quarter.

North Hollywood, which trailed, 28-14, at halftime, rolled up 187 yards in the first half, including 175 on the ground by Gable.

Sylmar’s Tobaise Brookins rushed for 197 yards and scored two touchdowns and Girmar Johnson gained 88 yards, including a 77-yard touchdown run.

“We didn’t know how to stop (Gable),” Brookins said. “He’s real elusive and we just had to go after him as hard as we could.”

Sylmar quarterback Daniel Terry, who passed for 128 yards on only three completions--all for touchdowns--connected with Brian Roberson on a 34-yard play on the Spartans’ opening series of the second half to increase the advantage to 34-14.

On Sylmar’s ensuing series, the Spartans put together a 6 1/2-minute drive in the third quarter, capped by an eight-yard run by Brookins to go ahead, 40-14.

Gable, who had a 63-yard touchdown run nullified late in the second period, had runs of 51, 48, 38 and 33 yards. He carried for all 63 yards on an opening eight-play scoring drive that gave North Hollywood a 7-0 lead 3 minutes 20 seconds into the contest.

“They just came after me in the second half,” Gable said. “They did something at halftime and made me work for my yards in the second half.”