The San Diego Section sent six of its teams into battle in last weekend’s Southern California regional football championship games. Four came out victorious and will play in state bowl game finals this weekend.
Leading the charge are the Christian High Patriots from El Cajon, Morse Tigers from southeast San Diego, Valley Center Jaguars and Cathedral Catholic Dons from Del Mar.
Christian and Cathedral Catholic are private schools and draw student-athletes from outside boundaries.
The two teams that didn’t advance, but not for a lack of effort, included the Granite Hills Eagles from El Cajon and Santa Fe Christian Eagles from Solana Beach.
A total of 15 bowl championship games are scheduled Friday, Dec. 12, and Saturday, Dec. 13, at one of three designated playing sites: Buena Park High School, Fullerton Union High School District Stadium and Saddleback College.
There are 11 schools with state championships already in the bag, including Cathedral Catholic, two schools return in search of their first state championship while 17 schools — Christian, Morse and Valley Center — are making their state football bowl championship game debut.
Cathedral Catholic (11-2) will meet Folsom (13-1) in a Division 1-AA matchup on Friday, at 8 p.m. at Saddleback College.
Christian (8-7) will tackle Oakland Bishop O’Dowd (10-4) in the Division 5-AA final on Friday, Dec. 12, at 4 p.m. at Buena Park High School.
Valley Center (8-6) will engage San Jose Lincoln (11-3) on Friday, Dec. 12, at 4 p.m. in Fullerton.
Morse (10-4) will pair up against Winters (13-1) on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 3 p.m. at Buena Park High School.
Patriot Nation
Christian, the San Diego Section Division III champion, received two passing touchdowns from junior quarterback Kaleb Runkle to junior Kai Rosier, one rushing touchdown from freshman Julian Morones and an interception return for a touchdown by senior Hank Houston in last Friday’s 27-13 win over Cerritos Valley Christian.
Senior Steven Benson picked up three kicking points in the regional playoff victory.
Runkle completed eight of 16 passing attempts for 127 yards. Rosier had six catches for 93 yards. The Patriots rushed for 129 yards — 65 yards on nine carries for Morones and 61 yards on 11 carries by senior Jacob Kirchhoefer.
Houston had one carry for 28 yards while making a team-high 13 tackles, including seven unassisted stops and four tackles for losses and three sacks. He also accounted for all three interceptions, returning one pick 35 yards for a touchdown to hike the Christian lead to 20-7 with 4:03 left in the first half. Kirchhoefer also caused a fumble.
Overall, the Pats recorded six sacks in the contest with Morones and senior Hayden Jeremiah each adding one and sophomore Drew Gaut and senior Hudson McFarlane each sharing one.
Senior Chase Togerson added nine tackles while junior Soren Lucey recorded seven stops. Senior Gage Humora logged six tackles and tacked on a 17-yard kickoff return.
On the field, it was a closely fought game with Christian edging Valley Christian 256-250 in total yards. Valley Christian junior signal-caller Liam Sweeney passed for 281 yards with two touchdowns but was intercepted three times.
Christian dominated on defense, holding the Defenders (11-4) to -31 rushing yards on 21 carries, including -36 yards on eight carries for Sweeney.
The Patriots piled up 20 unanswered points to lead 27-7 in the fourth quarter.
Morones opened scoring in the game on a 52-yard run. Valley Christian tied the game, 7-7, on a 12-yard pass from Sweeney to senior Oliver Boateng on the first play of the second quarter.
The Defenders did not score again until 4:50 to play in the game.
Runkle passed 23 yards to Rosier for a 14-7 lead. Houston’s pick-six made the score 20-7. Runkle passed 43 yards to Rosier for a 27-7 advantage with 10:12 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots enter the state final riding the crest of a late season six-game winning streak.
Bishop O’Dowd defeated Chico, 23-20, in the Northern California regional. The Dragons have won five games in a row.
Tiger tales
Morse’s fifth consecutive win — 52-40 over Simi Valley Grace on Saturday —launched the Tigers into their first-ever state bowl game. Senior Superior Garror rushed for 365 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Morse scoring parade while the Tigers tacked on a fifth rushing touchdown from sophomore Ethan Esmailian (three carries, 66 yards).
Seniors De’Vell Green (six catches, 55 yards) and Brandon Short (one catch, four yards) each caught one scoring pass from Esmailian (81 passing yards in the game).
Garror, the Tigers’ monster performer, has rushed for 2,201 yards and scored 29 rushing touchdowns this season while passing for 298 yards with four touchdowns and piling up 699 receiving yards and eight TD.
Grace, led by 373 passing yards and three touchdowns from junior Riley Williams, finished 11-4, 5-0 in the Citrus Coast standings.
Northern exposure
Cathedral senior Brady Palmer passed for 231 yards and three scores to lead the Dons past Los Alamitos, 42-21, last Friday at Moorpark College. Junior Honor Falaave rushed for 99 yards and three touchdowns to gear the ground assault as the Open Division section champions racked up 343 total yards.
Junior Isaac Cook had five catches for 134 yards. Falaave also caught three passes for 40 yards to finish the game with 138 all-purpose yards.
Los Alamitos finished 12-3.
Valley Center has won seven of its last eight games entering the state bowl contest after defeating Moreno Valley Valley View, 30-19, last Friday. Senior Braylon Mitchell completed 12 of 15 passing attempts for 275 yards with a pair of touchdowns. Senior J. Tyan Tirado rushed 17 times for 128 yards and one touchdown.
Senor Jesse Morales had five catches for 121 yards while junior Gauge Wright had four catches for 47 yards, each with one touchdown.
The VC defense recorded two sacks and two interceptions while liming the Valley Christian rushing attack to 64 yards.
Junior Dax Labrum had 233 passing yards and two TD in Santa Fe Christian’s 26-21 setback to Rio Hondo Prep on Saturday, the Eagles’ first loss of the season (13-1).
Epic showdown
Pacifica and Granite Hills met each having won prior state bowl championships and were thus in elite company in Saturday’s Division 1-A Southern California regional championship game. The high impact contest turned from a lopsided start into a classic finish.
Granite Hills fell behind 21-0, 28-7 after the first quarter and trailed 35-14 at halftime. But a 21-0 surge in the third quarter made believers out of the home team as the Eagles erased the deficit to pull even at 35-all.
Both teams had chances to go up by three points in the fourth quarter but both squads missed field goals to keep the score level. It appeared the game was headed for overtime until Pacifica senior Deville Warner blocked a Granite Hills punt attempt and returned the ball 28 yards for a touchdown with 43.2 seconds left on the game clock.
The Eagles were left with just 37.7 seconds to play with and couldn’t get the ball down field as an otherwise spectacular season came to a premature end.
Pacifica junior quarterback Taylor Lee passed for 185 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. The real damage maker was junior Isaiah Phelps with 208 rushing yards and two TD. Lee also scored once on the ground.
Junior Alijah Royster, another go-to-Triton, had seven catches for 85 yards and two scores.
Junior Zac Benitez completed 21 of 31 passing attempts for 335 yards to seven receivers: senior Tristan Diaz (six catches, 72 yards), junior Zhedan Smith (five catches, 83 yards), senior Noah Walker (four catches, 83 yards), senior D.J. Wilkins (three catches, 36 yards), senior Parker Johnson (one catch, 48 yards), junior Anthony Mattar (one catch, nine yards) and senior Isaiah Rodriguez (one catch, four years).
Walker, Diaz and Johnson each had touchdown catches.
Junior Gage Spalding rushed 11 times for 63 yards and two touchdowns, breaking loose for 27 yards down the sideline to help power the host’s resurgence.
Johnson made the successful two-point conversion after his touchdown catch to tie the game with 2:28 remaining in the third quarter.
Benitez topped the Eagles with 355 total yards by tacking on 20 rushing yards. He also had one punt for 49 yards.
Junior Cayden Phillips and senior Hunter Hamilton keyed the hosts with 12 tackles each. Phillips and seniors Landon Hart and Wyatt McLeod each had one sack. The Eagles made six tackles for losses in the game. Senior Logan Vance and junior Jesse Wilhite each had interceptions to stop Pacifica drives.
But mistakes and penalties added up to derail the Eagles’ chances of ultimately winning the game.
“In a championship game, one or two plays can be the difference,” Granite Hills head coach Kellan Cobbs said. “It is what it is.
“I would like to have been on the other side (of the score). We were down 35-14 at halftime and bounced back to tie the score, but we couldn’t finish it. We made some mistakes. Pacifica is a very good team and I could see why they were 14-0 coming into the game for a good reason.”
