Arrington Makes Statement, Fuels Culver City Rout

Friday was Jordan Arrington's night.

Culver City High's senior quarterback, who lost his starting job to junior Lukas O'Connor last week, stepped into the starting role against Palos Verdes Peninsula and made quite an impression as the Centaurs rolled over the Panthers 41-24 in their home opener.

"I was trying to make a statement," Arrington said. "I was trying to get my rightful spot back at QB, and that was my goal for the night and I'm glad I accomplished it."

Last week, Coach Jahmal Wright noted that the Centaurs' offense had sputtered against Torrance West and was used to "moving the ball up and down the field." Arrington was able to do just that against Peninsula. The senior put on quite a show, completing 12 of his 20 passes for 211 yards with a touchdown. He also ran for a bruising score from five yards out in the fourth quarter.

Arrington described his thought process as he was running for the touchdown. "My team needed to get up by more and we weren't satisfied with our score," he said. "So I took it in."

The game was close at halftime. After going down 20-3, Peninsula drove down the field and scored a touchdown with 30 seconds remaining in the half. Quarterback Brock Dale completed consecutive passes to tight end Haden Gregory for 21 and 13 yards before hitting running back Tommy Webster on a 25-yard strike over the middle for a touchdown. They converted the 2-point conversion on a fake point-after kick.

Culver City attempted to rally back before the half, but came up just short. Arrington and receiver Alex Jackson connected on a 33-yard pass that got the Centaurs to the Panthers 10-yard line, but time ran out before they could get the next snap off. The score at halftime was 20-11.

The Centaurs pulled away in the second half. After punting for the first time in the game with 9:48 to play in the third quarter, Culver City got a fourth down conversion pass to wide receiver Reggie House on their next drive. The Centaurs marched the ball down the field and got a five-yard touchdown reception from junior Michael Horchin.

Peninsula was able to answer back, with Dale completing a long pass to Josh Mcguiness that set the Panthers up inside Culver City's 20. The Panthers got inside the 10 on a controversial pass interference call against Culver defensive back Ijumaa Armstrong. The Centaurs were able to keep Peninsula out of the end zone, though, as Darius Morrow sacked Dale for an 11-yard loss, forcing Eliel Tyler on for his second field goal of the night.

Wright said he would give his defense a seven out of 10 rating, but that's not going to be good enough to win games in the future.

"I'm happy with the guys because they always fight, but we want to win a lot more football games," Wright said. "For us to beat better teams, we're going to have to play a lot more disciplined football."

In addition to the pass interference call, Culver City was also penalized for a number of personal fouls. Despite their troubles, the defense held Peninsula to those three points in the second half.

Apparently motivated by the Panthers' field goal, the Centaurs' offense responded immediately. Tailback Marquise Smothers took the ball 45 yards for a touchdown that put Culver City up 34-14. Arrington took it in from five yards out on the next drive to make the score 41-14.

At that point, Wright pulled the starters and let his backups get some action.

The Centaurs moved to 2-0 on the season and on Friday will take on Redondo Union in Redondo Beach.