The touchdowns never seemed to end, but unfortunately for Whittier Christian, the clock ran out as it was looking for one final touchdown and the Heralds lost to Western Christian, 78-74, in a wild nonleague game Friday night at Whittier College.
The Heralds trailed for all of the second half before finally coming up with back-to-back stops of the Fighting Lancers (1-4) in the fourth quarter. Cooper Hughes then tossed a 35-yard touchdown pass to JC Reinis and on the next possession scored on a 2-yard run to put the Heralds (0-5) up, 74-63.
The Fighting Lancers came back with two touchdowns late in the fourth, to take the lead back with 47 seconds left.
Cooper drove the Heralds down to the Fighting Lancers 30 with 6 seconds left, giving him one last shot at the end zone but he was pressured and the ball was tipped to end the game.
Cooper finished with six touchdown passes and three rushing touchdowns to go along with 426 yards of total offense. Justin Osborn had 167 yards receiving and 106 yards rushing for the Heralds.
STEPHAN MARTIN, Contributing writer
In other nonleague games:
St. Margaret’s 35, Laguna Beach 14: The visiting Tartans, ranked No. 1 in the East Valley, improved to 4-0 with the victory. Oscar Gomez had 22 carries for 162 yards and five TDs for the Tartans.
Saddleback Valley Christian 46, California City 22: Charlie Morris rushed 12 times for 137 yards and three touchdowns and Cade Henjum passed for 213 yards and two TDs in his first start to lead the Warriors (4-0) at San Juan Hills.
Bishop Gorman 34, St. John Bosco 31: Quarterback Tate Martell passed for 230 yards and and accounted for three touchdowns to help lead the Gaels (6-0) in a game between the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the USA Today national rankings. No. 1 St. John Bosco (3-1) rallied from a 34-10 deficit to cut the lead to three on a Josh Rosen touchdown pass with 1:12 left, but the defending CIF State Open Division champion Braves could not recover an onside kick and saw their 19-game win streak come to an end.
