Saugus High senior quarterback Jake Nuttall did everything he needed to get his team one more game in the Division VII playoffs Friday.
And in the end, it was just enough to get the Centurions a 22-19 comeback win against Schurr High of Montebello for Saugus’ home game, which was played at Canyon High.
“Honestly, we just woke up on offense,” said Nuttall, of the team’s second-half improvement. “We knew if we could stay in it long enough, our plays are going to come.”
Nuttall said the win represented the team’s resolve, which has been challenged all year. The 9-2 Centurions secured their playoff spot last week with a win over Golden Valley.
Nuttall finished 21-of-30 for 225 yards, with three touchdowns and 1 interception, with a whole lot of help in the second half from junior wide receiver Degan Grant and running back Ty Hall.
Hall pounded out 113 yards on the ground in 27 carries, including several big gains on the game’s final drive to secure the win. Grant accounted for just over half of Nuttall’s passing yards, catching nine passes for 118 yards and a touchdown.
But in the first half, it looked like Nuttall’s record-breaking senior season was going to end in Canyon Country.
After junior wide receiver Tre Lewis put Saugus up first with a 14-yard catch from Nuttall, Schurr countered with its own passing game.
Freshman quarterback Jacob Torres connected on a pair of long passes, with the latter, a 48-yard bomb to running back Tyler Higashi, tying the game 7-7 less than two minutes after Saugus’ score.
Saugus also hurt itself in the first half, and in the second quarter, the Spartans’ senior running back was able to capitalize, scoring all three of Schurr’s touchdowns in the first half.
And those mistakes were also compounded by injuries.
On an ensuing drive, a muffed punt was picked up by Schurr, and a few plays later the Centurions’ Lewis became tangled up with a Schurr player and went down injured with just shy of eight minutes left in the first half.
He ultimately left the game with a leg injury, and several plays later, Higashi struck again with a 20-yard run to the end zone, giving Schurr a 13-7 lead after a missed two-point conversion attempt.
Another 6-yard run by Higashi with 4:25 to play in the first half left Saugus trailing 19-7 going into the halftime.
Then the Centurions’ defense put its collective foot down.
In terms of halftime adjustments, head coach Jason Bornn decided to put a little more pressure up front on Schurr, and “go back to doing what we do,” he said.
“And we just started running our base defense against them and started blitzing a little bit more, which we hadn’t planned on doing,” he said, mentioning Schurr’s option threat.
And it worked.
While Nuttall continued to carve up the Spartans’ defense, their freshman quarterback struggled, with Torres finishing with 100 yards, after notching 66 on his team’s first drive.
The Centurions’ momentum built late in the third quarter, with Grant catching the touchdown that put Saugus within a score, 19-14, with one minute left in the third quarter.
Junior wide receiver Landon Lattimore caught the go-ahead score with 7:49 left in the fourth quarter on a 43-yard reception. A two-point conversion pass from Nuttall to Justin Alvarez helped seal the deal.
Bornn said after the game that a prior coin toss and a Calabasas win would put the Centurions at home next week as they seek a 10th win in the second round.
