Everything comes quicker for football teams playing in Zero Week.
Oscar Zapata’s chance to be the hero came with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Faced with a fourth-and-3 and his team without any points, the John F. Kennedy quarterback rolled out to his left and delivered a perfect pass to Jacob Salazar in the end zone.
It was so close that an Abraham Lincoln defensive player got a finger on the ball.
“Worried,” Salazar said of his feeling when the play was called. “When I lobbed it up I was like … and then I just raised my hands.”
That scoring strike and a defensive stop on the final play sealed the Commanders’ 7-3 Class 4A nonleague city win Saturday at All City Stadium.
The Commanders, who hammered the Lancers 68-14 in Week 10 last season, wobbled offensively until putting together their decisive 15-play, 80-yard drive. “And we did it with a lot of young kids,” JFK coach Chris Enzminger said.
The Lancers, who were losing starters right and left to injuries and cramping, marched to the 9-yard line with eight seconds left only to have quarterback Dan Rodriguez tripped up at the 7 trying to bootleg around the corner as time expired. That play put an end to a 15-play drive kept alive by Rodriguez, who went for 12 yards on fourth-and-9 to put the Lancers at the Commanders’ 20 with two minutes left.
The Lancers chewed up yards behind their hefty line, paving the way for junior Juanito Reyes to rush for 116 yards. But Reyes played sparingly in the second half. He needed stitches to close a wound on his right ear and returned in time for the final drive.
The Lancers took a 3-0 lead on a 32-yard field goal by Javier Ruiz in the second quarter. The Lancers got an early interception from Armando Medrano and a fumble recovery by Jose Carrasco, but they couldn’t match the Commanders when it came to moxie.
“Give Kennedy credit. They went and did what they had to do to win the game,” said Lancers coach Larry Gile, a former JFK assistant.
John F. Kennedy 0 0 0 7 – 7
Abraham Lincoln 0 3 0 0 – 3
AL – FG Ruiz 32. JFK – Salazar 8 pass from Zapata (I. Espinoza kick).
