COSTA MESA – What a comeback.

Orange Lutheran rallied from a 17-point second-half deficit to beat Serra 27-26 on Friday in the season opener for both at Orange Coast College.

Lancers sophomore quarterback TJ Lateef completed a 6-yard touchdown pass to senior running back Antonio Barrera with 36 seconds remaining to tie the game game 26-26. Dieter Kelly kicked the extra point for the 27-26 lead.

Three pass interference penalties against Serra helped Orange Lutheran’s winning drive that started at its 20-yard line with 4:32 remaining.

Serra, which had a 20-3 lead in the third quarter, advanced to its 38 in the final moments.

Both teams were CIF Southern Section champions in 2021. Orange Lutheran won the CIF-SS Division 2 championship. Serra won the Division 3 title.

Serra next week plays Long Beach Poly on Friday, Aug. 26, at Veterans Stadium.

Orange Lutheran, No. 5 in the Orange County top 25, plays at Upland next Friday. Upland defeated La Habra this week.

The score was 7-3 at halftime.

Serra got the ball to start the second half. The Cavaliers’ first snap was a 47-yard run by Cincere Rhaney who found a massive hole in the middle. He scored three plays later on a similar run up the middle, this one covering 27 yards. The extra-point kick missed, leaving Serra with a 13-3 lead with 9:20 to go in the third quarter.

Rhaney’s second touchdown happened fewer than two minutes later. Serra’s Fredrick Williams III recovered a fumble at the Orange Lutheran 26. Rhaney scored on  an 11-yard run, the point-after kick was good and the Cavaliers had a 20-3 lead.

For the second time in the game an apparent Orange Lutheran touchdown was erased by an Orange Lutheran penalty. A touchdown pass from Lateef to Deuce Frierson was reversed by a holding penalty. Orange Lutheran could only get three points on a 35-yard field goal by Kelly to make it 20-6.

The Lancers rally then accelerated. Lateef passed to Barrera for an 8-yard touchdown pass to cut the Serra lead to 20-13. Kelly’s kickoff was a pooch kick that was recovered by Orange Lutheran’s Keon Washington at the Serra 26.

Orange Lutheran tied it 20-20 on a 5-yard touchdown run by Barerra and Kelly’s extra-point kick.

Serra senior defensive lineman Jaggar Tavai tipped Orange Lutheran sophomore quarterback TJ Lateef’s pass on the game’s first play from scrimmage, Pleasant pulled in the ball on its end-over-end path at the Orange Lutheran 25 and the state champion sprinter sped to the end zone for the 7-0 lead.

Orange Lutheran’s following two possessions ended with punts. The Lancers appeared to score a touchdown on their fourth possession, but Lateef’s 9-yard touchdown run was erased by an Orange Lutheran holding penalty. Two plays later Orange Lutheran got its first-half points on a 30-yard field goal by Kelly to make it 7-3 with 10:55 remaining in the second quarter.

Orange Lutheran did control the field-position competition. Serra’s first-half drives started at the Cavaliers 15-yard line, their 14, their 31, the 50, the Orange Lutheran 45 and the Serra 20.

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Serra late in the second quarter moved the ball to the Orange Lutheran 26-yard line and had a first down there. The Cavaliers fumbled the ball away, with Ben Alefaio’s hit on Serra running back Kai Honda knocking the ball to the turf where the Lancers’ Mason Johnson recovered it.

Lateef completions of 25 yards to Barrera and 15 yards to Frierson in the final minute of the half advanced Orange Lutheran to the Serra 25-yard line. That was as far as the Lancers would get. They lined up for a field goal try of 42 yards on the final play of the half, but the snap was high and holder Miller Hitzke had to make a run for it and did not get far, and was tackled as time expired.

Serra used two quarterbacks almost equally in the first half, sophomore Jimmy Butler and junior Jason Mitchell.