Los Alamitos comes from behind to beat Inglewood in "Week 00" season opener

Lance Smith

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Los Alamitos comes from behind to beat Inglewood in "Week 00" season opener image

Lansing State Journal file photo / USA Today Network via Imagn

The California high school football regular season is officially underway, and Los Alamitos is the first team on the board with a win.

The Griffins defeated Inglewood 20-12 on Friday in an ultra-rare in-state "Week Double Zero" regular season game, a scheduling exception that requires CIF approval that's usually used for teams playing road games out-of-state.

Whereas the majority of the rest of the Southern Section scrimmaged this week and starts official contests next Friday, Aug. 22, Los Al prevailed in an exciting comeback on Friday to start in-section play with a bang.

Inglewood scored twice early in the second quarter on touchdown passes from Lincoln Jahn to Donovan Randolph and led 12-0 until the final minute of the first half. Colin Creason got the Griffins on the board with a touchdown pass to Beckham Hofland, cutting the deficit to 12-7 shortly before halftime.

After receiving the opening kickoff of the second half, the Sentinels twice drove the ball well into Los Alamitos territory but turned it over on downs. Los Alamitos took a 13-12 lead on a rushing touchdown from Kamden Tillis late in the third quarter and went up eight points on a Lenny Ibarra touchdown run with roughly three minutes left in the fourth.

Inglewood was without one of the state's premier defensive linemen, 4-star senior defensive tackle Elija Harmon.

Next week, Los Alamitos heads to Hawaii to take on Kapolei (1-0), which is coming off a statement win against Punahou. The Sentinels' schedule doesn't get easier as they look to bounce back against Central Section Division 1 champion Central East.

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Lance Smith

Lance has covered high school basketball, football and softball since 2019. A graduate of The USC Marshall School of Business, Smith dabbles in linear algebra and football and basketball computer rankings.