IRVINE – Irvine quarterback Ronin Scheinblum threw a desperation, fourth-down pass to the end zone where a teammate caught it for a game-tying touchdown with 22 seconds left in the game.
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Dylan Nguyen kicked the extra point to put the Vaqueros ahead by one point.
Scheinblum found Irvine receiver Enzo Cahoon and began a yelling, hugging celebration of what seconds later would be 7-6 win for Irvine in a Foxtrot League game Friday at Irvine High.
After the game, Scheinblum explained the play …
“I saw my guy Enzo Cahoon,” Scheinblum said. “He came up big. He caught the touchdown.”
Nope. That was not how it happened.
Seamus Hoffman caught the touchdown pass among a throng of El Toro and Irvine players going for the ball in the middle of the end zone.
That’s how wild the ending was, even the quarterback didn’t clearly see what happened.
El Toro had a 3-0 lead at halftime on a Luke Williams 27-yard field goal in the second quarter.
Williams kicked a 25-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to make it 6-0.
A 49-yard punt by Gavin Furr, who had a 58-yard punt in the first half, planted El Toro at the Chargers 10-yard line. Three players later El Toro punted, and Irvine took over at its 47-yard line.
Scheinblum connected with Cahoon for completions of 8 and 12 yards, with the latter a third-down pass that gave Irvine a first down at the El Toro 26-yard line. An incompletion was followed by false-start penalty that backed up the Vaqueros 5 yards, and Scheinblum ran for 9 yards to the Chargers 22.
A Scheinblum third-down pass caught by Cahoon cutting through the middle of the end zone was erased by an illegal motion penalty. A double reverse pass on the repeated third down was incomplete.
On fourth-and-11 at the El Toro 27, Scheinblum took a shotgun snap, rolled left and just as he reached the sideline he threw a high-arc pass to the end zone. Hoffman caught it among a mass of El Toro and Irvine players, thus Scheinblum’s confusion about who caught the ball.
It looked like the ball got tipped before it landed in Hoffman’s hands.
“Honestly, I don’t think it got tipped once,” said Hoffman, a running back who rushed for 97 yards on Friday after rushing for 253 yards in a in over Beckman last week. “What happened was, I was in the right place at the right time. It sort of just fell into my hands.
“I was surprised at first that I caught it. I went up, everything’s happening and then I feel the ball. It hit my chest, hit my hands and I’m like, ‘oh, I’m holding on.’ Squeezed as hard as I could.”
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Nguyen’s point-after kick put Irvine on top, 7-6, with 22 seconds to go.
El Toro quickly got down field. As the game clock reached zero, an incomplete deep pass drew a pass-interference penalty. That moved the ball to the Irvine 25.
Williams’ 42-yard field goal attempt on the night’s final snap had the distance but was wide right.
It was a game that likely will be impactful on playoff berths in the six-team Foxtrot League. Going into this week, four teams were tied for second place – El Dorado, El Toro, Irvine and Segerstrom.
El Dorado beat Segerstrom, 26-12, on Friday. Orange is in first place with its 3-0 league record, El Dorado and Irvine are tied for second at 2-1 followed by Irvine and Segerstrom at 1-2 each.
Irvine plays Orange next Thursday at El Modena High in the next-to-last week of the regular season. El Toro is at home against Segerstrom next Friday.
Irvine’s three Foxtrot League games have been decided by one point. The Vaqueros lost to Segerstrom, 21-20, and beat Beckman, 28-27.
“We fight to the end,” said Scheinblum, whose grandfather Richie Scheinblum had an eight-year MLB career that included 87 games with the Angels in the early 1970s. “That’s what we do. It was a whole 11-player effort.”
Scheinblum, a senior who replaced Vaqueros sophomore starting quarterback William Bowman after Bowman took a hard hit in the third quarter, praised El Toro.
“I’m happy we don’t have to play them again,” he said.
The first quarter ended in a 0-0 tie. El Toro took a 3-0 lead on 27-yard field goal with 9:29 to go in the second quarter.
Those would be the only points of the first half … although Irvine came close to taking the lead. The Vaqueros dove from their 38-yard line to the El Toro 5 for a first down there. On fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line, Irvine gave the ball to Hoffman who was hit first by El Toro’s Matt Arroyo before teammates took Hoffman down at the 1 to end that threat.
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