Photo of Ruffin byStephen Dachman

Wilson High’s Ezell Ruffin started his senior year in spectacular fashion.

The Bruins wide receiver/defensive back scored four touchdowns to lead Wilson to a decisive 49-6 victory over visiting Huntington Park on Friday night in the season opener for both teams.

Ruffin caught two scoring strikes of 6 and 49 yards from sophomore quarterback Brett Harper.  He also picked off Spartans quarterback Johnny Diaz and brought it back 60 yards for a touchdown, and returned a punt 45 yards at the end of the first half to cap a remarkable night.

The tone of the evening was set early when Huntington Park went for it on 4th-and-4 on the first drive of the game.

But Wilson’s Vergee Whitaker stopped the Spartans’ Jorge Rios to give the Bruins the ball on downs.

On their first drive, Wilson faced a 4th-and-goal on the 2-yard line, and Whitaker rumbled in to give the Bruins a 7-0 lead.

“We knew if it was close, we were going to go for it,” Wilson coach Mario Morales said about going for it on 4th-and goal. “It was a great confidence builder to stop them on defense and come back down and score.”

Ruffin actually scored five touchdowns when he picked up a Spartans fumble and brought it back for the score, but a block in the back penalty was the only thing that stood in his path on Friday night.

“This was the best game of my life,” Ruffin said. “Everybody did their job tonight and this team is so close because we’re one team and not a bunch of individuals.”

Said Morales: “Ezell is a very special kid who had an outstanding game tonight, and he has a burst that not many players have. I haven’t seen someone play that well in a long time.”

Brett Harper was solid in his first varsity game at quarterback, but many weren’t surprised to see such composure after the 15-year old played a major role in last year’s Long Beach PONY World Series championship run.

Harper completed 10 of 13 passes for 147 yards, threw two touchdowns and was picked off once.

Harper was able to use his foot speed to buy time to complete passes and actually scored a 25-yard touchdown on the ground that was called back.

“I am not going to lie and say I wasn’t nervous, but after we scored our first touchdown, I forgot about everything else and just did my job,” Harper said. “It helps so much to have guys like Brandon Robertson in the backfield and Ezell split out wide. This was a lot of fun.”

Robertson carried the ball 17 times for 112 yards, including a 9-yard scoring run in the second quarter.

Ruffin caught five passes for 94 yards and couldn’t have been happier with his quarterback.

“No one is surprised that Brett did so well in his first start, because we spent all summer working together to get the chemistry we showed tonight,” Ruffin said.

Morales was just as happy with the play he got at quarterback.

“I was really happy with Brett’s composure and the way he stepped up and made good decisions,” Morales said. “He is a very bright kid who works very hard, and we expect big things from him.”

Covina High transfer quarterback Andy Perez replaced Harper late in the third quarter and showed off his speed as well.

The sophomore carried the ball five times for 85 yards, including a 47-yard scoring run in the third quarter. He also looked solid with his arm, but had some passes dropped.

No one from Wilson is blowing this out of proportion as anything other than one good win—but the only thing that didn’t seem to work Friday night was the sound system that screeched several times, so loudly that most people in the stadium had their hands over their ears.

The lone bright spot for Huntington Park was senior running back Jorge Rios, who gained 138 yards on 27 carries and scored a 3-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

Wilson will face a much tougher task next Thursday when they travel to Huntington Beach to take on Edison.

By Brian Baiotto, Staff Writer