Tustin Pass Fools Foothill for Victory

TUSTIN —  Deshaun Foster and his Tustin High teammates had an outstanding night running the ball Thursday against Foothill. It was that success that made Foothill bring seven and eight players to line of scrimmage and help allow Foster to be wide-open for the game-winning touchdown pass as the Tillers won, 29-22.

The play came with Tustin down, 22-21, with 2 minutes 24 seconds left. Tustin was driving, but its run-dominated style isn’t designed to score in a hurry.

Quarterback Todd Scott rolled out and around the Foothill rush and threw to Foster at the Knights’ 25. He made one cut and raced to the end zone.

“They refused to cover him,” Tustin Coach Myron Miller said. “You don’t want to leave him alone back there, but we were punishing them pretty good.”

Foster ran for 129 yards in 12 carries, including an 18-yard touchdown run that put Tustin up, 21-8, with 1:26 left in the third quarter. He also scored on a pair of two-point conversions.

Tustin’s Brandon Lambert gained 80 yards in 17 attempts and teammate Greg Carnal had 78 in 13 carries.

Foothill had twice snapped the ball over the head of its punter to set up a pair of third-quarter touchdowns for Tustin.

But Football came right back thanks in large part to quarterback Tyler Lang. He started the rally with a 42-yard touchdown pass that began as a middle screen to Ron Perugini, who then made a deft cut to pick up his blocking. He raced to the end zone to cut the lead to 21-15 with 11:50 left in the game.

Tustin then went on a drive that seemed about to put the game away.

But on the 15th play of the drive from the Foothill four, Lambert fumbled and linebacker Lawrence Mariner recovered with 5:10 to play.

Two plays later, Lang threw down the right sideline to Matt Hall, who caught the ball near midfield then broke a tackle as two Tustin defensive backs knocked each other down. Hall ran the rest of the way to the end zone untouched.

Jonathan Whiddon then made the extra point to put Foothill up, 22-21, with 4:28 left.