The play set up West L.A. at the two with five seconds left, where Phillips spiked the ball to set up a 20-yard game-winning chip shot for Eduardo Montoya — his fourth field goal of the game — no more than a minute and a half after the Vaqueros had taken their first lead of the second half on a 30-yard field goal by Crescenta Valley High graduate Arian Abghari.
It's just been that kind of season for the Vaqueros, who dropped to 0-7 and 0-3 in conference and have lost their last two games by a combined four points.
"We came within one play of a victory [Oct. 9 against L.A. Pierce College] and we came within one play of a victory this week," Rome said. "At some point, we'll get one."
Glendale's defense — led by nine tackles from Ra'Shon Harper, seven from Jermaine Shamburger and five from Alex Saenz, who also had two sacks and a forced fumble — held the Wildcats without a touchdown in the second half.
After West L.A. opened the half with a scoring drive to go up, 20-7, on a Montoya field goal, the Vaqueros offense stepped up, as well.
Glendale answered with a 12-play, 70-yard drive on its first possession of the second half to cut the lead to 20-14 at the 4:59 mark on a 17-yard touchdown run by Joshua Nakamoto, whose 58 rushing yards in 12 carries were second on the team to Omar Sanchez-Berrera's 75 yards in 15 carries.
Holding West L.A. to consecutive three-and-out possessions, the Vaqueros looked to be swinging control of the game back in their favor.
But on the first play of the fourth quarter, a West L.A. punt from its own 21-yard line was fumbled on the return and recovered by the Wildcats at the Vaqueros 38-yard line, ultimately leading to another field goal and a 23-14 lead with 12:41 to play.
