LAKE FOREST — It was a brilliant catch. Andrew Bozych hadn’t caught a ball until the final drive. Heck, he was only in the game because the starter got injured in the first quarter. But what he did with 16 seconds left will stay with him for the rest of his life. And probably most of his teammates too.
Bozych laid out in the end zone, fully extended, and caught a pass that was out of bounds. But his feet remained inbounds, in the end zone, and his touchdown reception gave El Toro a 31-28 victory over visiting Sonora in the Iota League.
“It was a big play in a big moment in our season when we needed it most,” El Toro coach Peter Lofthouse said. “Young guy making a play. Really proud of him.”
Bozych caught only two passes, both on the final drive, for a combined 9 yards. But he was a hero on Friday.
It was the kind of game in which even the losing side could take away something positive.
“I told our kids that we just played a playoff-caliber football game,” said Sonora coach Kevin Oberlander, whose team fell to 3-4 overall and 0-2 in league. “I felt good about our defense, I didn’t mind them having the ball after we scored. But El Toro did a great job on that last drive, a great job of time management.”
The game could not have been better, and Bozych – and quarterback Jack McKelvey and the entire offensive unit – could not have been more clutch.
Down 28-24 after Sonora’s Olin Morales Hyder scored his third touchdown with 3 minutes 33 seconds left in the game, El Toro went 77 yards in 13 plays. One of them was a 34-yard touchdown run by Makya Chee that was negated by a holding penalty with 44 seconds remaining.
“Honestly, it might have helped us,” Lofthouse said. “It killed more time off the clock. It gave Sonora less time to come back on us at the end.”
El Toro’s last drive may have ended with McKelvey firing a ball that was low and outside to Bozych, but he played a huge role with his legs. McKelvey ran three times for 22 yards on the winning drive. He had a great night running, with six carries for 99 yards, including a 60-yard TD that answered Morales Hyders’s 71-yard score to open the second half.
“We hadn’t seen that at all out of him,” Oberlander said of McKelvey’s running game.
“Jack’s getting more comfortable in his role,” Lofthouse said.
McKelvey said he was just taking what was given to him.
El Toro improved to 4-3 overall, 2-0 in league.
On the decisive drive, McKelvey completed 7 of 8 passes for 59 yards. One of those was a 31-yarder to Luke Doyle on third-and-14 from the 44. Doyle caught 10 passes for 148 yards.
After overthrowing a receiver in the end zone, McKelvey hit Doyle for 7 yards to set up the game-winning play.
“I just saw pressure and tried to make something happen and found Andrew Bozych on the side,” McKelvey said of his winning toss. “It definitely got away from me a little bit but he has great hands.”
Those “great hands” were in the game because Noah Andrews got hurt in the first quarter. It was a great example of someone picking up a teammate.
On the night, McKelvey completed 16 of 22 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns. He ran six times for 99 yards with a 60-yard score. Chee carried 14 times for 70 yards and a 3-yard touchdown on the opening drive.
But the composure El Toro showed at the end was critical.
“I told Jack that we have almost four minutes, we have two timeouts, this is what the offense does – you don’t have to force anything,” Lofthouse said. “Just trust the process. The whole group – very proud of the linemen. Jack’s getting more confidence. This is the first game where he used his legs more.”
Sonora deserves all the credit for making it the instant classic that Lofthouse called it.
“That is a hell of a ball club over there. It really is,” he said. “They run the ball well, they’re very disciplined, they execute at a very high level. They gave us fits. They are really good at what they do. I don’t care who you are or how long you’ve coached, the one type of team that scares you is the option, the wing-T. You can’t replicate it with your scout teams.”
Sonora brought its A game, and its passing game was phenomenal – playing at a level the Raiders had not done previously. Tucker Hunnicutt completed 9 of 13 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown.
Oberlander was hopeful that’s the new normal.
“We were beside ourselves,” Lofthouse said. “The way they passed the ball – we had not seen this in any game we had seen this year. We couldn’t believe it.”
Morales Hyder was equal to anything that El Toro had. The Sonora back rushed 11 times for 152 yards with touchdowns of 71 and 5 yards. He also caught a pass and turned it into an 18-yards score right before halftime to tie the score at 14-14.
His 71-yarder opened the second half, and it was immediately followed by McKelvey’s 60- yard burst.
Sonora also had a 52-yard scoring run from Alexsay Nazaroff on the Raiders’ first possession. The ground game was phenomenal, especially considering the lead running back, Anthony Abad, was out.
Ultimately, the decisive points came from Gianluca D’Amato. After the Sonora defense stiffened at the goal line, rather than risk getting stuffed from the 2-yard line, El Toro’s kicker booted a 20-yard field goal with 11:05 left in the game.
It gave El Toro a 24-21 lead, setting the stage for the drama that followed – Sonora’s 65-yard, 11-play drive that ended with Morales Hyder scoring from 5 yards out with 3:33 remaining, and then El Toro’s game-winning response.
It was brilliant.
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