A win would have cemented second place for the Compton Tarbabes, but two missing stars and the loss of a third was too much to overcome as Jesse Scroggins threw three touchdowns to lead the Lakewood Lancers to a 41-13 victory at Compton. The Lakewood win created a three-way tie for second place in the league with Lakewood, Compton and the Jordan Panthers.
The tiebreaker was settled after the game as the two coaches were asked to draw envelopes containing their fates. Both coaches drew the “Tied for third” envelopes, effectively handing second place to Jordan. Since Lakewood had just defeated Compton, the Lancers held the tiebreaker for third. Compton finishes the season in fourth place in the Moore League.
“We’ve just got to keep our heads up and make sure we’re ready to play,” Compton coach Calvin Bryant said after the game. “[Lakewood is] a good team and they outplayed us. I never saw their punter, so they did a pretty good job.”
Lakewood never came close to needing the punter, jumping out to an early 13-0 first quarter lead and never looking back. Scroggins tossed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Tawuan Lucas on the opening drive, and followed it up with a 19-yard laser to Tofi Tiedemann on the following possession. The junior quarterback would finish just 8-12 for 82 yards, but threw three touchdowns.
“My greatest feeling is to look at [Scroggins] and see his jersey clean,” Lakewood coach Thadd MacNeal smiled. “They didn’t touch him out there.”
Scroggins put up the points, but it was junior running back Jerry Stone that carried the load for Lakewood, racking up 174 yards and a touchdown on 21 rushes. Compton’s usually fierce run defense was unable to stop Stone’s pounding up-the-middle attack.
“He just makes everyone better,” coach MacNeal said.
Compton’s season-long momentum was brought to a screeching halt, but the Tarbabes were hardly at full strength. USC-bound defensive back Chris Metcalf served a one-game suspension for being ejected in the previous game, while feature running back Curry Williams sat out – as a precaution – with a high-ankle sprain sustained weeks ago.
“It was really a gametime decision,” said Williams. “I want to be out there so bad but it’s better to wait.”
Williams will be back in action for next week’s playoff opener, but Compton will have to wait to find out if they’ll also have star back James McConico. The Tarbabes’ leading rusher was the lead blocker on a third quarter play when he hit a Lakewood player helmet-to-helmet and fell to the ground. Paramedics on the scene estimate that McConico was unconscious for more than two minutes as they removed his facemask. He spent several minutes motionless on the ground and was loaded into an ambulance for observation. Coach Bryant has no word on McConico’s condition as of yet.
McConico ran the ball 8 times for 100 yards and a touchdown before leaving the game, and the offense sputtered without he or Williams to turn to. Gerald Dill picked up the slack with 84 yards on 15 carries, but the run-heavy Compton offense rarely fooled Lakewood.
“Hats off to their defense,” Compton coach Bryant said. “We had some pretty good drives but couldn’t finish them off.”
