Lancer 11 Massacres Apaches
Halting Mickey's Wild Rampage
Press-Telegram
December 3, 1966

By Ed Jaszewski

There's no joy at Centennial, for Mighty Mickey has been stopped. The victory gives Lakewood a berth in the CIF semifinals. El Rancho is Lakewood's next victim in the 8 p.m. skirmish. The winner will meet the victor of the Anaheim-Mater Dei struggle, also tonight, for the CIF southern section championship. Lakewood is considered the underdog.

Being the underdog is no novelty to Coach Ford's crew, who surprised Centennial by overpowering them for two quick touchdowns in the first quarter of the game. Frank Lieberman says we were lucky, and in an attempt to regain face said that Lakewood deserved the breaks they got all season long.

He must have been out to lunch during the first quarter of that Centennial game when Lakewood ran over the weak defense of the Apaches. The rain hurt Lakewood just as much as it did Centennial. Ron Ayala's aerials were held to a minimum even when the ground was still dry enough for Wayne Silvey and Larry Crutchfield's ground attack.

In the same period, Cureton was stopped time and time again by the sparkling Lancer defense. The two scores Centennial did get were simply strokes of luck. The first came when Mickey Cureton seemed to be stymied again by a host of tacklers but miraculously escaped a massacre on his own 13 yard line, and dazzled everyone with his speed on an 87 yard jaunt.

Their only other score came when Ron Ayala was about to cut loose with a long pass when hit from behind. The ball escaped his grasp and was picked off by one of his persuers near the 10 yard line, setting up a touchdown. The halftime score was 14-13. The second half dragged along except for the safety scored by the Lancers, making the final score 16-13.