Matt Robinson leads JSerra to comeback win over Alemany, 28-27, in OT

Before the season started, college recruiters didn’t consider Matt Robinson to be in the upper echelon of high school quarterbacks.

After Friday night’s performance in Mission Hills, however, he may be turning a few heads as a potential star on the rise. Robinson connected on 23 of 34 passes for 165 yards and three touchdowns to lead San Juan Capistrano JSerra Catholic to a 28-27 overtime victory over host Alemany.

Robinson, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound junior, engineered two fourth-quarter scoring drives and another in overtime, firing a seven-yard strike to Tarik Luckett in the corner of the end zone to pull the Lions even at 27-27. Jake Haggard made the ensuing extra point — his fourth of the game — to complete the comeback.

“The play was called Omaha … it’s just a five-yard out and we hit it,� Robinson said. “To pull this out the way we did is just huge.�

Robinson found Tyler Shimomura on a 10-yard pass to narrow the deficit to 21-14 with 7:26 remaining. After forcing the Warriors to punt, JSerra got the ball back and drove to the Alemany 11. On fourth-and-six, Robinson shook off two defenders, rolled right and passed to Tristan West at the goal line for the tying score.

“I could see them coming in my peripheral vision and knew that I was going to get hit but I instinctively spun out of it,� said Robinson, who also ran 18 times for 121 yards. “Tristan wasn’t my primary receiver on the play, but he got open and it worked.�

Despite making the All-Trinity League first team as a sophomore last season, Robinson went largely unnoticed because JSerra tied for third place in league and missed the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division playoffs. Serra (2-0) is ranked 15th in the Southland by The Times.

Alemany, meanwhile, is in a transition phase under new head Coach James Washington, who took over the program in January after Dean Herrington was dismissed despite guiding the Warriors to 84 wins and seven league titles in 10 years.

Miles Bryant, who threw for 251 yards and four scores in a 42-12 season-opening victory at Los Angeles Garfield, faced a more relentless pass rush against Serra but completed 13 of 16 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown in the first half. He scored on a two-yard run.

Bryant was sidelined with a left shoulder injury late in the third quarter and didn’t return.

Cayden Dunn ran for 126 yards and two touchdowns in 18 carries, including a 25-yard score on the first play of overtime that gave the Warriors (1-1) a 27-21 lead. The point-after kick was low and batted down by several linemen and the miss proved to be crucial.

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