Garden Grove strikes again, advances to final

NORWALK - The Garden Grove football team added another chapter to what has already been a storybook season.

The Argonauts trailed in their CIF-SS Southern Division semifinal game against Norwalk on Saturday night by 10 points midway through the third quarter and appeared to be headed toward being devoured by the Lancers' double wing offense.

Then Garden Grove magic happened ... again and again and when the finally dust settled the Argonauts walked off the field at Excelsior Stadium with a 35-23 road victory and a berth in Friday's final.

Garden Grove (13-0) will face La Mirada (12-1) in the final Friday. The game will likely be played at Orange Coast College. The site and time will be finalized Monday. La Mirada defeated Laguna Hills on Friday night.

"I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids," Garden Grove coach Joe Hay said. "They want to win. I'm telling you, they're a team of destiny and they are dangerous because of that."

Garden Grove trailed, 17-14, after a 3-yard touchdown by quarterback Sean Young with 4:14 left in the third quarter.

Later in the quarter, Norwalk running back Elijhaa Penny fumbled the pitch from the quarterback and Garden Grove defensive back Jesse Lozano scooped up the ball and raced 61 yards for what proved to be the winning score. Lozano's touchdown gave the Argonauts a 21-17 lead.

"I thought someone was going to catch me," Lozano said. "But once I crossed the end zone, I knew that we were going to be all right."

Garden Grove running back Josh Sepulveda then helped put the game away with a pair of touchdown runs. First, he ripped off a 46-yard run with 6:38 left in the game. He came back two minutes later with a 50-yard run to give the Argonauts a 35-17 lead.

"When we were down, we went to the sideline and said that this is not our defense. This is not the way we play," Lozano said. "We started talking about playing for KT (Kevin Telles), playing for the fans.

"Then we started scoring and started stopping them. We got our heads together and started playing Argo football."

The Lancers opened the second half pounding away at the Garden Grove defense with the bruising running of Penny. He scored on 12- and 70-yard touchdown runs to give the Lancers a 17-7 lead, setting the stage for the comeback

The Lancers went scoreless until a late touchdown with 2:53 left in the game.

"We started getting used to their offense. That was the key, getting used to what they do and how they do things on offense," Hay said. "Once we did we were able to stop them and shut them down.

"Our motto is one play at a time. That's what we preach to our guys. Even if we give up a big play, that's adversity, but we have to respond and we do. We line up and play ... It is just one play at a time."