High school football: UCLA commit Justyn Martin of Inglewood throws 13 touchdown passes in 106-0 win

Story, video, photos updated Nov. 1, 5 p.m.

Justyn Martin of Inglewood (Calif.) threw 13 touchdown passes Friday night in a 106-0 win for his team over rival Morningside (Inglewood) at El Camino College in Torrance. Martin's 13 TD tosses are the second most in a single game in high school football history, behind only Arthur Smith of Nebraska, who threw 15 in a game 100 years ago in 1921.

While the final score and Martin's presence in the lopsided contest has generated much national discussion, including harsh criticism from the opposing coach and the Southern Section which governs the two schools, there is no denying the historical nature of the quarterback's numbers. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound senior committed to UCLA earlier this week.

Inglewood (8-0) scored touchdowns on each of its first four plays from scrimmage, led 52-0 in the first quarter and 86-0 at halftime. Prior to Friday night, the Sentinels had outscored opponents 299-45 on the season, but not tallied more than 59 in any game. Morningside dropped to 2-8. Martin is regarded as a four-star prospect by 247Sports and the No. 16 quarterback prospect in the country. He chose the Bruins over offers from Michigan, Oregon and USC among others. According to the Cal-Hi Sports record book, he smashed the previous state record of 10 touchdown passes in a game set in 1999 by David Koral, of Palisades (Pacific Palisades).

247Sports reporter Shotgun Spratling, who was at the game and added updates after each score on Twitter, tweeted that Martin tied the state record with a 48-yard screen pass to Tomarion Harden just before the half to make it 86-0.

Martin broke the state mark with his 11th scoring pass, another short out to Justus Ross-Simmons who did most of the work getting to the end zone, making it 92-0 early in the third quarter.

The 12th TD pass came later in the third quarter, and No. 13 was thrown in the fourth, followed by a successful two-point conversion with Inglewood up, 104-0.

Most of the throws were dump offs, according to Spratling, and very few plays were run in the second half due to the running clock.

Morningside first-year coach Collins was clearly not pleased with any of it. He told Los Angeles Times writer Eric Sondheimer attempts to go to a running clock early in the second quarter were unsuccessful. "The refs asked (Inglewood) to run the clock and they refused," Collins said. "It was a classless move. I told them, 'Go play (nationally ranked) St. John Bosco and Mater Dei.' I wouldn't do that to any team — keep your quarterback commit to UCLA in until the end of the game, taking a chance with an injury. It wasn't good sportsmanship."

Emails from MaxPreps to third-year Inglewood coach Mil'Von James were not immediately returned. He took over the Sentinels in 2019, a season after they went 0-10 and hadn't had a winning season since 2012. Since James took over,  Inglewood is 25-1. 

Seven Inglewood players besides Martin are among the top 133 senior recruits in California, according to 247Sports. The Sentinels are scheduled to start Southern Section Division 2 playoffs next week.

The Southern Section, by far the largest of the California Interscholastic Federation's 10 governing bodies in the state, released a statement Saturday that in part read: "The CIF-SS condemns, in the strongest terms, results such as these. It is our expectation that the Inglewood administration will work towards putting in place an action plan that an event such as this does not repeat itself."

On Monday, Inglewood Principal Debbie Tate took action, tweeting out a letter of apology from the school and coach James.