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Sports

Culver City High Wins Football Opener

The Centaurs pull away in the second half to beat West Torrance 51-28.

It was a story of two halves for the Culver City High football team in Friday night's season opener. In the first half, the Centaurs' defense was burned for several long touchdowns. In the second half, however, visiting West Torrance gained only 40 yards and committed two turnovers that both led to touchdowns as Culver City pulled away for a 51-28 nonleague victory.

"We had to make some halftime adjustments on defense, we identified exactly where they were exploiting us and once we made the necessary adjustments we were fine," Centaurs head coach Jahmal Wright said. "All of the mistakes we made are correctable."

Starting quarterback Lukas O'Connor completed nine of 22 passes for 156 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions--both touchdowns to fellow senior and captain Alex Jackson, including a 73-yarder on the first play from scrimmage. Jackson finished with seven catches for 140 yards.

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"It's hard to be super sharp in the first game but we have a lot of talented receivers to throw the ball to," Wright said of O'Connor. "He'll be fine. We have a lot of confidence in him. He know his reads and once he settles down he'll be fine."

Culver City led 35-28 at halftime, then Yamen Sanders' 33-yard interception return set up O'Connor's 35-yard strike to Jackson and senior defensive back Miles Washington returned an interception 63 yards for another score. The Centaurs' final two points came courtesy of a safety when a snap sailed over the head of the West Torrance punter and the Centaurs recovered the loose ball in the end zone.

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"We have to execute better and no more turnovers—we gave them the ball three times and gave them a short field to work with a few times," Centaurs offensive coordinator Aki Wilson said. "This is the first game, so we'll work the kinks out."

Kevin Porche rushed three times for 43 yards and one touchdown (all in the first half) and completed his one pass attempt for five yards. Akili Skannal had five carries for 26 yards and one touchdown and Julius Wilson had an 80-yard touchdown run and also scored on a 69-yard punt return to give Culver City a 14-7 lead.

West Torrance took a brief 21-14 lead on Asanka Jayawardena's 40-yard interception return, but Culver City quickly answered when Julius Wilson took a pitch from O'Connor, broke to the outside and raced 80 yards for a touchdown. Porche's six-yard run gave the Centaurs the lead back and Skannal's 13-yard scamper made it a 14-point lead.

Warriors quarterback Joey Notch ended a sustained march with a 25-yard touchdown pass to fellow senior Hugo Yepez to pull the Bay League squad within a touchdown at the end of a wild first half.

"At halftime we told the kids to keep grinding, keep pushing hard and we'll wear them down in the second half," Centaurs defensive line coach Jesse Sanchez said. "We were making mental mistakes, it wasn't even a physical thing, so eventually we'll make things happen."

Culver City won last season's opener at West Torrance, 28-14, with O'Connor completing 15 of 27 passes for 96 yards and two touchdowns and Porche connecting on both of his passes for 87 yards and one score out of the Centaurs' Wildcat formation.

"This is a team that went 10-0 as freshmen, so this group knows how to win and the juniors filling in went 7-3 as freshmen," Culver City linebackers coach Tom Crump said. "Our linebackers are very agressive and like to fly around. I expected them to step up to the challenge and we got two picks."

Culver City will travel to Palos Verdes for a 3 p.m. game against Peninsula of Rolling Hills next Friday. The Panthers opened their season with a 21-12 victory over North Torrance.

"It was a tale of two halves, really. The first half went back and forth, both offenses put up a lot of points," Culver City's game announcer Greg Dynaburski commented. "In the second half, Culver City's defense picked up, seemed to play a little bit better. The passing game looked okay, but they'll have to figure the running game out. The other big problem is penalties. I think they had 10 penalties in the second half alone. It should be an interesting season."

After a stellar first half, in which he connected on 15 of 20 passes for 219 yards and one touchdown, Notch completed just three of his 15 attempts for 15 yards in the second half. He was sacked five times for -39 yards and threw two interceptions. Tailback Barry Thomas rushed for 51 yards and two touchdowns for West Torrance, including a 41-yard burst that tied the game 7-7 in the first quarter.

Culver City was flagged 14 times for a total of 92 yards but outgained West Torrance by a margin of 372 to 297.

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