CARSON - Orange Lutheran found itself inches away from the end zone on two occasions.   Once in the first half and once in the closing seconds of the game.

Both times the fourth-seeded Lancers were unable to punch it in for a score and top-seeded Long Beach Poly escaped with a hard-earned 2-0 victory in the semifinals of the CIF-SS Pac-5 semifinals tonight at Home Depot Center. 

The Lancers drove from their own 32 to the Jackrabbits' 1 with 22.8 seconds left. They did it with sophomore Bobby Wheatley at quarterback after starter Blake Hyepock went down because of an injured right ankle with 10:13 left in the first half. 

Long Beach Poly got called for an off-sides penalty that moved the ball inches away from the end zone. Then there were three consecutive timeouts, including two by the Jackrabbits coach Raul Lara who wanted to make sure he had the right defensive unit in to make the stop. The Jackrabbits had stopped Orange Lutheran on four consecutive plays froom the 1-yard line in the closing minutes of the first half. 

The Lancers were well within field-goal range for James Rammelsberg, so even if they couldn't score this time they would have plenty of time to set up for a winning field goal. 

Wheatley went to make the hand off to running back Ricky Pemasa, but fullback Jeremiah Pemasa got in the middle of the exchange. The ball squirted free and Jackrabbits defensive back Herman Davidson pounced on it to save the day for Long Beach Poly.

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