TUSTIN – Villa Park quarterback Nick Sipe connected with tight end Caleb Johnson with 11 seconds remaining and Anthony Firuta kicked the extra point as the Spartans rallied to beat Foothill, 14-13, in a crucial Crestview League game at Tustin High.
Villa Park is 2-0 in league with one league game remaining. Foothill is 1-1.
The Spartans have clinched at least a share of the league championship. A win next Friday against Esperanza, a Villa Park home game at El Modena High, in the final game of the regular season would make the Spartans outright champions.
Villa Park improved to 9-0 overall. Foothill, which plays at Yorba Linda next Friday, is 6-3.
With 49 seconds left in the game, Villa Park started its winning drive at its 41-yard line. Sipe, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound junior, completed four passes, including one for 26 yards to Matt Roach to put the Spartans on the Foothill 4. Sipe then rolled right and just before going out of bounds flipped the ball to Johnson in the end zone to tie it, 13-13.
Firuta coolly kicked the extra point to create the 14-13 lead.
Foothill had time for one play, which was a game-ending sack.
Sipe completed 5 of 17 for 36 yards at halftime. He completed 11 of his final 12 passes in the second half to make him 18 for 36 for the game, for 212 yards and two touchdowns.
“We just caught our rhythm there,” Sipe said of the second-half improvement. “We didn’t execute in the first half.”
Earlier in the fourth quarter, Sipe connected with Roach for a 23-yard touchdown pass that cut the Foothill lead to 10-7.
Foothill had a 10-0 halftime lead. The Knights went ahead 7-0 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Jimmy Latham to complete a 10-play, 52-yard drive. The key play on the drive was a 20-yard completion from Moebius to Ryan Munck on fourth-and-8.
The Knights made it 10-0 on a 37-yard field goal by Evan Mickelson in the second quarter.
After Roach’s touchdown catch in the fourth quarter, Mickelson kicked a 32-yard field goal to give Foothill a 13-7 lead.
Sipe said Villa Park’s first-half offensive troubles were partially created by the Knights.
“They played a great game,” he said. “That’s probably the toughest team we’ve played so far.”
Villa Park coach Dusan Ancich said he was confident that Sipe and his teammates would come through.
“The team believes in him and he believes in himself,” Ancich said. “When it came down to pressure time, he did what he’s capable of.”
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
