Millikan speedster Alden Darby stared up into the night sky \u2013 still hazy from halftime Homecoming fireworks \u2013 eyes locked onto the football as it descended toward him. As the punt fell into his arms, Darby made a quick move to his left and saw a clear path in front of him.<\/p>\n
All systems: go. Afterburners: engaged. Forty blazing yards later, Darby found paydirt. The third quarter touchdown was exactly what Millikan needed, bringing them within three points of Jordan and fueling their 23-17 comeback victory at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that punt return, I felt like we got the momentum back on our side,\u201d Darby said after the game, describing what goes through his mind when he sees open field. \u201cMy eyes get big and I get happy seeing all that space. I wouldn\u2019t be able to do anything without my blocking and my offensive line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Darby\u2019s third quarter punt return was an energizing jolt to Millikan, who played an inspiring second half to defeat Jordan after trailing 17-7 at halftime. Jordan controlled the game in nearly every way in the first half, but struggled to move the ball after halftime (their seven second half possessions ended in five punts, a lost fumble and a safety). <\/p>\n
With 8:00 remaining in the game, tailback Darius Handy gave the Rams a lead they would not relinquish, taking a pitch from Darby for a 60-yard touchdown run for a 21-17 advantage. A desperate Jordan team had little luck moving down the field, and lost a high snap into the back of the end zone on their final drive. <\/p>\n
\u201cLast week we had a setback [in a loss at Wilson] and we talked about needing to come back this week and the kids did that,\u201d said Millikan head coach Kirk Diego. \u201cI kind of challenged them a little bit. I didn\u2019t think they were playing like who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The halftime speech worked. After committing ten first half penalties that stymied several drives and handed excellent field position to the Panthers, the Rams committed just one penalty in the second half and dominated the like of scrimmage. Darby\u2019s third quarter punt return touchdown was made possible because the Millikan defense forced Jordan to put from their own one-yard line. Excellent blocking up front opened up huge gaps for both Darby and Handy, who rushed for 166 yards and 68 yards, respectively \u2013 each with a rushing touchdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means a lot,\u201d Darby said. \u201cWe knew it was going to come down to who was more physical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan, for their part, capitalized on Millikan\u2019s mistakes and judgement-lapses in the first half, intercepting a pass in Ram territory and punching in a touchdown minutes later to score first, then driving 70 yards down the field to take a 14-7 lead on a 1-yard dash by quarterback Keith Nixon. The senior \u2013 playing in the absence of reigning Moore League Player of the Year John Timu, out for the season \u2013 ran for 33 yards on the night and threw for 96 more. Junior Jason Logologo rushed for 54 yards and the opening touchdown, while receiver Anthony Smith contributed eight catches for 76 yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were two different teams from the first half to the second half,\u201d said Jordan head coach Scott Meyer, explaining he was pleased with his offense\u2019s performance, but placed blame on himself for tinkering with offensive sets in the second half that he believes may have overcomplicated things. A more telling sign of offensive struggles may be this statistic: Jordan\u2019s average possession began on the Millikan 45-yard line in the first half, and on their own 23-yard line in the second half. Millikan also stepped up the defensive pressure, notching five of their six team sacks in after halftime.<\/p>\n
The Panthers fall to 1-5 on the season (0-2 in league), and travel to Lakewood next week to take on the first-place Lancers. Millikan improves to 5-2 (2-1 in league) and now prepare to host Long Beach Poly in a must-win for both teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Panthers led 17-7 at halftime, but a third quarter punt return fuels a Millikan comeback and re-energizes an entire team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}