After the Wolf Pack, who had been down by 27 at one point, cut the lead to one in Friday night’s game against host Tokay with a little over a minute remaining on a touchdown pass from Jake Peterson to Darin Fleming, Lopez didn’t hesitate to go for the 2-point conversion and the win.
When junior running back Desean Watson caught a Peterson pass and dashed into the end zone to make it 48-47, Lopez knew he made the right call.
West secured the season-ending victory after junior Russell Moreno forced a fumble on the kick return and a Wolf Pack player scooped up the ball.
“After throwing six touchdowns tonight, I knew I had enough confidence to go in there and make it happen,” Peterson said. “I saw the linebackers blitz and I saw (Watson) wide open, and I knew I was going to him right away.”
The touchdown pass to Fleming capped a stunning fourth quarter comeback for West (2-3 Tri-City Athletic League, 3-7 overall). When the Wolf Pack faced a 47-20 deficit, referees motioned for a running clock to speed the game up. But not long after that, Peterson found senior wide receiver Patrick Phillips for an 81-yard touchdown pass.
About two minutes later, Peterson hooked up with Phillips again for a 31-yard score.
On the next Wolf Pack possession, another Peterson-to-Phillips pass cut the lead to 7 with four minutes left in the game.
Phillips led West receivers with 157 yards on six catches. Peterson was 21-of-35 passing with 352 yards and six touchdowns.
West was able to stop a Tigers (2-3, 6-4) drive with about two minutes remaining. Peterson led a gutsy drive with passes to senior wideout Kyle Lambert and Fleming, a senior tight end. With 1:10 left, Peterson found Fleming for the game-tying touchdown.
“I was thinking, ‘Don’t drop it. If you don’t make it, just don’t drop it,’” Fleming said. “We stepped up. We said we weren’t gonna take any more.”
Knowing that West was already out of the playoff hunt, Lopez rolled the dice and sent the offense back onto the field. Both teams called a timeout before the attempt.
Facing a heavy Tigers pass rush, Peterson backpedaled and found Watson all alone at about the 5-yard line. Watson broke for the corner of the end zone as West’s bench and bleachers erupted in celebration.
“There was no reason not to go for two,” Lopez said. “Our guys battled back that far and to settle for a tie, I never even thought about it.”
The victory also gave the Wolf Pack a bit of poetic justice, as it knocked Edison out of the playoffs. Last month, Edison beat West on a controversial last-second field goal call.
The fourth quarter wasn’t the only time heartbeats went up on Friday night, though.
The Wolf Pack had a 20-12 lead with about 4 minutes left in the second quarter, but watched that erode quickly under the hands and legs of Tokay quarterback Seth Siddle-Mitchell.
With a little less than two minutes left, the senior signal caller faked a handoff to junior receiver Gabe Ramirez and ran 47 yards untouched for a score. After Siddle-Mitchell ran in the 2-point conversion, the game was tied at 20.
The Wolf Pack went four-and-out on their next possession, giving the ball back to the Tigers with less than a minute left. Siddle-Mitchell led a drive downfield, finding McCarthy for a 34-yard touchdown pass as time expired to give his team a 27-20 lead at halftime.
Siddle-Mitchell finished with 180 yards rushing, 149 yards passing and four total touchdowns.
Not long after the teams returned to the field, Tokay returned to the end zone, scoring after about a minute. On a gadget play, receiver Jon Haley took a handoff and launched a touchdown pass to senior running back Patrick McCarthy, giving the Tigers a seemingly insurmountable 34-20 lead.
Tokay added two more touchdowns on the night.
The first two quarters were fairly bright for West, which put the first points on the board on a 4-yard Desean Watson touchdown run. Watson gained 60 yards on the ground in place of leading rusher Dexter Alcala, who was out with a high left ankle injury.
The Wolf Pack scored again in the second quarter to make it 13-12 on a touchdown pass from junior quarterback Jake Peterson to junior wideout Will Kaigler. About five and a half minutes later, West had their biggest lead of the night, 20-12, after Peterson found Phillips for a 24-yard score.
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