Irvine rallies, beats Northwood

IRVINE - Irvine junior Jeremiah Carter kicked three field goals Friday night, but he saved the best for last.

Carter kicked a 27-yard field goal as time expired to lift Irvine to a 29-28 comeback victory over Northwood in a wild Pacific Coast League game at Irvine High.

"They tried to ice me twice with two timeouts but I just tried to zone out the crowd, it was really good blocking and it was a good hold and it went through," Carter said.

Carter also kicked a 28-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 26-yarder in the second quarter.

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Irvine (4-4, 2-1) tried to win the game with 2:16 left when Carter attempted a 52-yard field goal, but the attempt fell short.

Northwood (2-6, 0-3) tried to run out the clock, but on a second-down play, quarterback Ricky Bautista scrambled to try and pick up a first down and fumbled. Irvine's Kevin Torres recovered at the Northwood 8-yard line with 1:18 left.

The Vaqueros were eventually backed up to the Northwood 12-yard line. But Carter's kick had plenty of distance.

"What a kick and Kevin's fumble recovery (was big)," Irvine coach Erik Terry said. "Our guys play start to finish all the time and they do things the right way."

Bautista had another outstanding game, passing for 324 yards and scoring on a pair of 1-yard TD runs. But Irvine's Alex Cliatt intercepted a pass and returned it 50 yards for a score to cut the Northwood lead to 28-26 with 7:12 remaining in the contest.