Westminster ends Henigan's run at Irvine

IRVINE - Westminster pulled out all the stops in the final seconds Friday night and captured a 20-16 victory over Irvine in the opening round of the CIF-SS Southern Division playoffs at Irvine High.

Westminster (7-4) advances to meet Norwalk.

With the victory, the Lions ended Terry Henigan's 29-year run as Irvine's head coach. Henigan, who announced before the season he was retiring, wound up with a 219-141-6 record.

Irvine led, 16-13, after Tim Callian kicked his third field goal of the night from 36 yards out on the opening play of the fourth quarter.

But Westminster advanced the ball to the Irvine 23-yard line with 17 seconds left. The Lions could have tied the game and sent it into overtime with a field goal.

Instead, they went for the victory.

On a third-and-3 play, quarterback Nick Anderson flipped the ball to Robert Camacho, who threw the ball into the end zone. The ball appeared to tip off a Westminster player, and an Irvine player and came close to landing on the turf.

But Tarik Rayford hauled it in for the score with 9.4 seconds left and after the conversion, the Lions were up 20-16.

"Playing and coaching you see those crazy plays at the end, and we just got a lucky break, really," Westminster coach Ted McMillen said. "Our kid was there and made a great effort, and the ball was really, really close to hitting the ground and may have hit it, but they didn't call it that way so the bounce went our way."

Rayford said he wasn't the primary receiver on the play.

"I was pretty much a decoy on that play, so I thought if they were going to throw the pass, it might get tipped or something and I might catch it, and that's what happened," Rayford said.

Irvine (7-4) held a 3-0 lead after one quarter on a 42-yard field goal by Callian and extended the lead to 10-0 on an 11-yard TD run by DaVonte Young in the second quarter. But Young injured his shoulder and did not play the rest of the game.

"It was a great game, I'm proud of our guys," Henigan said. "I have too many great memories to feel sad about it. I had a great time."