Less than two minutes into last Friday’s varsity football game at Newport Harbor High School, two San Marino sophomores combined to create a play that will no doubt qualify for the Titans’ season highlight reel. Quarterback Nico Mavridis tried to hand the ball to junior tailback Nick Singhal for a running play that appeared to be heading to the left side of the offensive formation.
But Mavridis and Singhal went different ways at what is known as the “mesh point”—where the football is exchanged—and the play appeared to be doomed as Mavridis emerged with the ball.
Simultaneously, sophomore wide receiver Trond Grizzell was on the far right side of the formation, pretending to act engaged on the action, per instructions given to him. When Grizzell saw the broken play, he did what any aware athlete should do: he improvised.
“I saw that the play had broken down and the defensive back covering me ran towards our backfield,” Grizzell said, when asked about his intentions. “I saw that, raised my hand and sprinted downfield.” Mavridis spotted his classmate wide open and let fly. Grizzell ran under the lofty throw and raced the remaining 50 yards untouched by human hands for a 71-yard scoring connection to give the Titans a 6-0 lead. Jordyn Evans punched the extra point through the uprights to give San Marino a 7-0 advantage as the strains of the Titan fight song echoed through Davidson Stadium.
Sadly, San Marino would not again find paydirt—or play the fight song—and the San Marino fans who braved the Friday evening beach commute can be forgiven if they hope to never again be subjected to “Anchors Aweigh” as the Sailors spent the better part of the evening in the Titans’ end zone on their way to a 48-7 victory.
So complete was the hosts’ domination that Newport Harbor’s quarterback, Cole Lavin, was featured on NBC’s “The Challenge” this past Sunday evening for his five touchdown passes. Meanwhile, the Titans were able to muster only 43 more yards the rest of the evening as San Marino dropped to 1-5 overall. Grizzell ended the evening with four catches for 110 yards but that pretty much does it for the offensive production.
Nathan Fajardo continued his remarkable improvement, pacing the Titans’ defense with ten tackles. Johnny Qiu and Singhal added nine apiece, Seth Matzumoto pitched in with 8 stops and an interception and Kourosh Hassibi made seven tackles and sacked Lavin once for an eight yard loss and hurried him on several other occasions. Jackson Herren made five tackles and defended two passes and Nick Derrick was credited with four stops.
The Titans host Monrovia on Friday evening in a rematch of what last year became the Rio Hondo League championship game in the final week of the regular season. The Titans won that one 34-21. It will be a much bigger challenge this year.
