Malik Vegatatum stripped the ball from a Grace Davis ball carrier late in the fourth quarter on Friday to set up the winning 40-yard touchdown pass from Terry Snipes to De’Jon Chambers for a thrilling 18-12 come-from-behind victory for the Weston Ranch sophomores.
After the Spartans scored first, Elijah Harper tied the game with a 47-yard touchdown pass from Snipes to make the score 6-6 after one quarter.
Grace Davis took a 12-6 lead in the second quarter and that held until the fourth quarter when Harper had a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown.
Snipes and Harper were quite the duo with Snipes completing seven passes for 128 yards and Harper grabbing six of those passes for 128 yards.
Vegatatum and James Walker (six carries, 73 yards) led the Cougars defense with eight tackles. Chambers and Harper (forced fumble) added six tackles, Felix Pitts and Jayelon Torres four each and Javier Eros a forced fumble.
Gregori-Modesto 35, East Union 6
The sophomore Lancers could only manage 123 yards of total offense on Friday in their non-league road loss.
East Union got its one score on a 16-yard pass from Jake Harries (3 of 5 passing, 38 yards) to Tyler Slaughter. Isaiah Cormier accounted for 95 yards of the East Union offense.
Joe Reynaga led the Lancers with 14 tackles. Cormier recovered a fumble and Isaiah Sholund had a sack.