Dorsey has dominated on defense all season long, and it was no different against their rival Crenshaw. Photo by Jason Lewis
By Jason Lewis
Sentinel Sports Editor
[email protected]
After every victory Dorsey players and coaches shout out, “It’s a great day to be a Don!” But their senior class had never shouted that after playing their rival Crenshaw. Dorsey head coach Paul Knox had not been able to shout that after playing Crenshaw since 2006, when Dorsey knocked them off 6 -2 on a muddy field in the pouring rain.
But on Friday night, before addressing his team after they defeated Crenshaw 7 -6, Knox was fired up when he yelled out, “It doesn’t get any better than this! It’s a great day to be a Don!”
Knox was most happy for his seniors.
“Our senior class had never beaten them,” Knox said. “They were ready to go out and get that victory.”
Over the course of Crenshaw’s five game winning streak over Dorsey, Crenshaw averaged 42.3 points per game.
Dorsey has been playing lights out on defense all season long, but Crenshaw was lighting up the scoreboard over the last five games of this season, putting up 57 points a game.
Well Dorsey was more than ready to buck the trends, as they made plays all over the field, keeping Crenshaw off of their side of the field for most of the game.
Crenshaw quarterback Jerry McConico passed for 273 yards, and receiver Dominique Hatfield had nine receptions for 142 yards, but watching the game, it did not seem like they did much of anything because they struggled to sustain long drives for most of the game.
Crenshaw had a good play here and a good play there, but for the most part, Dorsey stopped most of the plays that Crenshaw ran. Dorsey was able to stop them from putting a string of good plays together that could lead to a scoring drive.
The game was extremely intense, and it seemed that any mistake would turn the tide, especially because the game was within one score of being tied throughout the night.
Dorsey scored first midway through the first quarter when running back Max Lyons scored on a two-yard touchdown run, giving Dorsey a 7 -0. As it turned out, that’s all they needed from the offense.
The Dorsey sideline seemed very confident with the lead, as UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin, who was a member of the last Dorsey team to defeat Crenshaw, said, “We’re finally going to get this one!”
Crenshaw did not get on the board until the third quarter, when McConico completed a long pass to Hatfield, and then he threw a 25-yard touchdown to Andre Edwards. But the extra point was missed, which ended up being costly.
Crenshaw had one more scoring chance, when a botched punt play gave them the ball inside the Dorsey 10 yard line. But Dorsey’s defense did not allow Crenshaw to get close to getting into the endzone, forcing a short field goal attempt, which was missed.
From that point on, Dorsey was able to take several minutes off of the clock by running the ball, and when Crenshaw did have a chance at a game winning drive, Dorsey’s defense did not allow them to get very far.
As big of a victory as this was for Dorsey, Knox is not trying to get too ahead of the schedule. He pointed out that all this means is that they are Coliseum League champions, which they won for the first time since beating Crenshaw in 2006.
Knox is allowing his team to enjoy the victory, but his attention has turned to their final game of the regular season, which is at Locke. He is not paying much attention to playoff seeding at this point, but it appears that Dorsey will end up with one of the top two spots in the City Section playoffs. That means all playoff games will be at home until the City title game.
Crenshaw is far from done this season, and one of their players said to a Dorsey player during the post game hand shakes, “We’ll see you in the playoffs.” That would more than likely happen in the semifinals or the title game, depending on which side of the brackets that both teams are put on.
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