Cypress-Pacifica: Key play
Cypress-Pacifica: Key play
Kennedy's only sack leads to a huge momentum shift
When the Cypress-Pacifica championship game is remembered years ahead, many will point to Ryan Saumur’s 85-yard fumble return to take the first lead, and quarterback Mike Vanderipe’s play on the ground and in the air.
There also will be the final stop at the 1-yard line to keep Pacifica from celebrating what would have been an unprecedented come-from-behind victory.
But the play that turned it all around for the Centurions happened with two minutes left in the second quarter and the Mariners threatening.
Pacifica was leading, 24-7, and it had the ball at the 37-yard line on fourth-and-15. In came senior defensive end Cody Kennedy to record his only sack of the game.
But that one sack stopped the Mariners’ momentum and completely turned everything around for the Cypress from that point on.
“We didn’t have an answer for them,” Centurions coach Ray Fenton said. “We had a little shell shock coming out; we couldn’t stop them.
“They were doing everything right, but that (sack) gave us a little spark; kind of like in the Rocky movie when he punched the Russian in the eye and he bled. ‘He’s not a machine.’ That’s a good analogy.
“That’s what we felt in that sack, that they are not a machine and that we could get them.”
Contact the writer: mmelendez@ocregister.com
