Villa Park Rallies to Defeat Tustin

Villa Park High School scored two touchdowns in a span of 16 seconds late in the fourth quarter to earn a 21-10, come-from-behind victory over Tustin Saturday night in the Century League opener for both in Fred Kelly Stadium.

The Spartans erased a 10-7 deficit with only 2:15 remaining in the game when split end Jack Samuels recovered teammate David Rose’s fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. Rose had dived into the end zone from the Tiller 1-yard line but fumbled the ball when he landed, and an alert Samuels pounced on the ball for the score.

Rose sealed the victory with 1:59 remaining when he intercepted a pass thrown by Tustin quarterback George Menges and returned it 22 yards to score. The victory improved the Spartans’ overall record to 3-1. Tustin is 2-2.

A crowd of 1,000 spent most of the first half entertained by the thunder and lightning on the cloudy evening. A light rain dampened the field in the second half as both teams struggled to get their offenses going.

It was a disappointing loss for the Tillers, who had to settle for fourth place last season in a league traditionally dominated by El Modena and Foothill. A loss to Villa Park last year helped to keep the Tillers, who finished the season with a 6-4 record, out of the playoffs.

Tustin’s defense had done a good job of containing Villa Park’s two running backs--Jamie Nelson and Rose--throughout the game and had a 10-7 lead going into the last quarter after Tom Kotlar kicked a 22-yard field goal with 28 seconds left in the third quarter.

Villa Park’s only touchdown through three quarters came on a fake punt by Nelson, who raced 49 yards down the right sideline on the last play of the first quarter to give the Spartans a 7-0 lead.

Nelson, who led all rushers with 87 yards on 10 carries, had the play of the game early in the second quarter. He appeared to be trapped for a big loss on fourth down on a punt attempt, but somehow eluded two tacklers and got off a 26-yard punt with his left foot.

“It was important to win the first league game,” Spartan Coach Pat Mahoney said. “I thought Tustin played good enough to win the ballgame. They’re young, but a sound team. I thought maybe they wanted to win the game a little more than us.

“When you can win a game like this, you’re fortunate. We planned the fake punt and practiced it all week. I thought we could run it successfully, and we did.”

Tustin scored its only touchdown on a short screen pass by Menges that tailback Lani Machado turned into a 45-yard scoring play. Menges completed 6 of 14 pass attempts for 116 yards and Machado added 65 yards rushing.