The Encinal Jets football players pay their respects during the playing of the National Anthem prior to their 34-28 loss last Friday.
The Encinal Jets lost their home opener 34-28 in a back-and-forth overtime thiller against the Serra High Padres, last Friday at the beautiful Willie Stargell Field with the picturesque bay behind the north end zone.
There were five lead changes and neither team went up by more than a touchdown. On paper, the teams did not appear to be equals. The Padres walked onto Stargell Field with what looked like a small army of 59 players; while the Jets have just one more football player than cheerleaders (22 football players, 21 cheerleaders.)
The Padres landed the first blow late in the first quarter as quarterback Joey Erdle ran in for a touchdown.
The Jets quickly countered with a 47-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Ve'e to Nahim Paschal. Paschal ran a wheel route out of the backfield and Ve'e threw a perfect fade pass that Paschal caught in stride as he went untouched into the end zone.
Encinal led 14-7 after a threeyard- touchdown run by Corey Sails. As Serra tried to respond, Erdle threw a deep pass in Encinal territory that was intercepted by Sails at his own one-yard-line with 11 seconds left before halftime. That's when the game took an unexpected turn. With Encinal looking to head into halftime with the lead, Ve'e could not handle the snap from center and fumbled. It was recovered by Luke Longinotti of Serra who ran into the end zone with three seconds left in the quarter. Serra converted a two-point conversion to make it 15-14 entering halftime.
"We were down," said Coach Tenorio of his team's mood. "It was a tough play. I wanted them to blow off a little steam before we went back on the field."
Encinal, still reeling from the momentum swing of the second quarter, could not get into a rhythm early in the third quarter. Erdle scored late in the third quarter on a one-yard touchdown run to make it 21-14 after a missed extra point. After the touchdown, the sunset turned into night and that's when Ve'e and Jon Trodder began to light up.
Ve'e hit Trodder down the sideline on a 27-yard touchdown pass with three seconds left in the third quarter. Two minutes later, Ve'e found Trodder again wide open down the middle of the field for a 73-yard touchdown pass that sent the Encinal crowd and bench into a frenzy. The back-to-back touchdown passes put Encinal in the lead 28-21.
The Padres responded with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Erdle to Zach Mitchell with less than five minutes in regulation play. Both teams could not score on their next possessions, and the game headed into overtime.
In overtime, the Jets received the ball first. Ve'e attempted a pass, but it was tipped and intercepted by Tyson Terreos. On Serra's overtime possession, Eric Norwood scored on a six-yard touchdown run to end the game 34-28.
"It was a tough loss," said Tenorio. "It's a learning experience. We never played overtime before so we did not know what to expect." Tenorio said his team will watch the film and learn from all the mistakes they made. He also said even though the team is saddened by the loss, his team will be ready for the "Big Game" next Friday against Alameda High.
"We're not worried about them, they need to be worried about us," said Tenorio.
The Jets (1-1) will play Alameda High Hornets (1-2), Friday, 7 p.m. at Stargell Field.
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