About an hour later, his father Jim Eppenbach pulled into their home driveway and immediately knew something was wrong.
Normally, Jim or his wife Marlene would drive Andrew home after a game, but it was a busy day, so they drove their own cars to the school, as did Andrew.
When Jim arrived home, one car was missing.
“It was so frightening,” Jim Eppenbach said. “I get home and my wife’s standing on the porch with the phone in her hand and a look on her face. I said ‘oh my God.’ You get that total sinking feeling that something’s gone horribly wrong.”
According to Jim, Andrew was driving home on Cameron Ave., in West Covina when a driver on a cell phone turned in front of Andrew and the crashed nearly head on, steering Andrew’s Ford Explorer into a lightpost.
Fortunately, Andrew walked away with only a stiff neck, sore back and a concussion.
Eppenbach, who signed a national letter of intent to attend San Diego State, has been forced to miss a few games since. But that’s the good news.
“It could have been a lot worse, the car was totalled,” Jim said. “You’re just so thankful he’s OK and that he will fully recover from this but it was scary. For any parent, these are your worst types of fears.”
