IRVINE – Cypress made a 20-point halftime lead stand up and defeated Woodbridge, 20-14, in a nonleague opener Friday night at University High.
“Thank God there weren’t five quarters,” Cypress coach Rick Feldman said.
Woodbridge (0-1) rallied in the second half, cutting the lead to 20-14 on a 12-yard touchdown run by Nick Nash with 6:11 left in the game.
The Warriors, despite losing the ball three times on fumbles, still had a chance to win it in the final minute.
Woodbridge got the ball back on the Cypress 46-yard line with 50 seconds left and no timeouts remaining but the Warriors were only able to gain 3 yards as time expired.
Cypress (1-0) had a solid first half behind the passing of quarterback Alex Ashcraft, who finished with 118 yards passing and one touchdown pass.
Ashcraft also had a 17-yard touchdown run that extended the Centurions’ lead to 13-0 late in the first quarter.
“We were able to throw the ball a little bit,” Feldman said. “We had a real tough time running the football tonight. Our quarterback is a little guy but he has a real nice arm and he makes good decisions.”
Cypress extended its lead to 20-0 when Ashcraft connected with Noah Zuzuarregui on a 3-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter.
Woodbridge, which had 95 yards in penalties in the first half, got back into the game in the second half behind the rushing of Connor McBride, who finished with 156 yards on 29 carries.
Nash had a 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter for Woodbridge’s first points.
“Offensively, we made too many mistakes in the first half,” Woodbridge coach Rick Gibson said. “We tried to overcome them in the second half and I thought we dominated the game in the second half, but it was too little, too late.
“I like our kids; I like what they did. They played hard and they never gave up and in spite of the mistakes that they made, they came back.”
Contact the writer: tiburt@scng.com
