VISTA ---- It may have been 20 years since Jerry Garrett starred on the football field for Oceanside High, but he proved that he still has at least one more highlight in his 37-year-old body.
Garrett, who went on to play at Palomar College and later for the San Diego Riptide of arenafootball2, has found a home with the semi-pro North County Cobras. He scored the game-tying touchdown Sunday in the Cobras' 17-16 victory over the Pensacola (Fla.) Lightning in the LaBelle Community Football League's championship game at Rancho Buena Vista High.
With two minutes left and the Cobras trailing by six with the ball at the Lightning's 5-yard line, Garrett rolled to his left on a naked bootleg and sprinted into the end zone untouched. Seconds later, Luke Liberty, a 2002 La Costa Canyon graduate, split the uprights with the point-after attempt, and the Cobras had secured their first LCFL title.
"This was huge to win our first championship," Garrett said. "This was huge. We've been making plays like that all year."
The LCFL is a semi-pro league with teams across the nation. The Cobras earned the right to represent the West region in the league's championship game by virtue of their 9-1 regular-season record and playoff victories over the San Diego Stallions, Foothill Firehawks and Inglewood Blackhawks.
In Sunday's championship, they struggled at times, but were the recipients of some good fortune at key times, and took advantage. They fell behind 16-10 early in the fourth quarter when the Lightning's Dan Rich found receiver Chad Hayes wide open in the end zone for a 36-yard touchdown pass, and failed to make anything out of their next two possessions.
It appeared that the Cobras' next possession had fizzled as well when they faced a fourth-and-17 play from the Lightning's 40. A personal foul on Pensacola, though, gave the Cobras a first down at the visitors' 25 (Garrett said a Lightning player was called for simulating the snap cadence), and four plays later, Garrett scored.
Liberty found himself in position to put the Cobras ahead because Lightning kicker Jacob Matlock had missed his extra-point try following Hayes' score. And on the first play from scrimmage after Garrett's TD, the Cobras' Joshua Hargas made a leaping catch to intercept a Rich pass and returned the ball 32 yards to the Lightning's 8.
The Cobras threatened to score again, but the game was called with 1:39 remaining when the Lightning had a handful of players ejected and refused to take the field in a timely manner.
"Even at this level, it's great to win a championship," said Liberty, who after a college soccer career came back to football with the Cobras three years ago and said he has had opportunities to try out for NFL teams. "I've never won a championship in football –--- I've always come up a little short –--- so being in this situation is unbelievable."
