One down and two more to go for both the Otay Ranch Mustangs and Eastlake Titans as the race intensifies for this year’s Metro-Mesa League football championship.
The Mustangs and Titans both own 1-0 league records after last weekend’s first round of league games. It will take three wins to secure outright possession of this year’s league banner, though two wins could produce a co- or even tri-championship.
Thus, the Mater Dei Catholic Crusaders and Olympian Eagles cannot be eliminated from championship contention just yet.
Otay Ranch defeated host Mater Dei Catholic, 42-38, in a dazzling display of offense on April 1 that came down to the final seconds before it was decided. The next night, Eastlake shut out host Olympian, 21-0, in a solid display of defense.
Round two starts this Friday. In one corner the Mustangs (2-0) will take on the Eagles (1-1) in their home nest in the teams’ annual Battle of the O’s rivalry game while in the other corner the Titans (2-0) will host the Crusaders (2-1).
If last weekend’s games are any indicator, both contests should be doozies.
Mater Dei Catholic entered its April 1 encounter ranked first among the section’s Division III teams (seventh overall in the section) while Otay Ranch was ranked seventh among Division II teams. It proved to be a true heavyweight battle.
The Crusaders lead 14-7 at the end of the first quarter but the Mustangs turned the table to lead 28-26 at halftime. Otay Ranch extended its lead to 42-26 in the second half before the host team rallied with 12 points in the final quarter.
The Mustangs scored three rushing touchdowns and three passing touchdowns to score the upset win.
Sophomore quarterback Brian Rudden completed 16 of 24 aerials for 161 yards and three touchdowns while senior Carl Addy had 16 carries for 107 yards and three scores.
Senior D.J. Meno had 10 carries for 72 yards and two receptions for 32 yards and one touchdown.
Senior Ethan Knight rushed six times for 28 yards and had three receptions for 79 yards.
Meno caught a short toss from Rudden to offset a touchdown pass from Mater Dei Catholic senior signal-caller Trevor Appelman to University of Oregon-bound Darren Barkins.
Barkins recorded three touchdowns in the game to key the hosts. His final TD, covering about 80 yards, displayed his breakaway speed as he continued to accelerate toward the end zone as the Crusaders mounted a ferocious comeback bid.
Also appearing on the scoresheet for Otay Ranch were senior Allen Okere, who was credited with two catches for 21 yards and one touchdown, while senior Joseph Firebaugh was credited with two catches for eight yards and one touchdown.
Junior Johnathan Nava had one interception while junior Haydn Brotschi had one fumble recovery.
Firebaugh averaged 60 yards on six kick-offs and was perfect on five extra-point attempts.
Knight called the memory-making victory a “team effort.”
The Crusaders stayed afloat defensively with three fumble recoveries. Appelman passed for 406 yards with three touchdowns to give him nine for the season. Barkins caught seven passes for 240 yards.
Eastlake opened defense of its league title with 233 rushing yards and 36 passing yards, scoring twice on the ground and once through the air.
Junior Nayhum Lao rushed 17 times for 139 yards and scored on a six-yard run while junior Christian Aguilar rushed 13 times for 76 yards, scoring from two yards out.
Senior Cole McFarlane completed all three of his passing attempts for 21 yards and one touchdown while freshman Johnny Limon completed six of 10 attempts for 15 yards with one interception. McFarlane also rushed six times for 18 yards.
Junior Jordan Blondin had three catches for 12 yards, including a five-yard touchdown grab to make the score 14-0.
Eastlake led 21-0 at halftime and didn’t need to score again braced by a defense that collected one interception (Aguilar) and one blocked punt (Wil Smith).
The Titans have outscored their opening two opponents 76-3.
Junior Kaylen Jones was successful on all three extra-point attempts.
Blondin has six catches for 56 yards and three touchdowns in two games.
The Eagles celebrated Senior Night and homecoming.
OLYMPIAN HIGH SCHOOL HOMECOMING
& SENIOR NIGHT
Photos by Jon Bigornia
Eastern exposure::
Granite Hills Eagles soaring with 4-0 football record
The 2020 high school football season has been late in coming but it certainly has to be satisfying so far now that the prep pigskin campaign has finally kicked off.
The Granite Hills Eagles have to be especially proud of what they have accomplished this spring after earning honors as the first team in the San Diego Section to post four wins.
The Eagles improved to 4-0 after defeating the host Steele Canyon Cougars, 40-33, in dramatic comeback fashion on April 1. But the victory was no April’s Fool joke.
The Eagles are very much for real and will play for rights to at least a share of this year’s Grossmont Hills League championship when they host the defending league champion Helix Highlanders this Friday at Valley Stadium.
Both Granite Hills and Helix are 2-0 in league play. The Highlanders kept their hopes of repeating as league champions after claiming an equally intrepid 49-35 win over the visiting Grossmont Foothillers last Friday.
The head coaches of both Granite Hills and Helix learned a lot of what character their respective teams are made of after posting their latest victories.
The Eagles trailed by 12 points at halftime before engineering a second-half comeback to stay unbeaten.
The Scotties came back from a pair on one touchdown deficits out-gun the Foothillers 35-21 in the second half en route to claiming the trophy in the schools’ annual Battle for The Musket rivalry game.
“The kids woke up at half time,” Granite Hills head coach Kellan Cobbs offered in the wake of the comeback win over the Cougars. “They had a big hit on one of our kids right before the half and I think that moment kinda woke the team up. The offensive line did a great job in the second half of opening up our run game and once that happened, we were able to start throwing the ball around. Justus (McComb, Eagles quarterback) really stepped up and played well. The defense had a huge turnover late in the game with an Interception by Titus Darling that won it for us.”
Game on
Steele Canyon senior quarterback Elia Kirisimasi completed nine of 14 passing attempts for 131 yards with one touchdown and one interception while sophomore Major Givens rushed 25 times for 202 yards and two touchdowns while also adding a 95-yard kickoff return for another touchdown.
Senior Manny Lovering caught a two-yard scoring pass five minutes into the game to cap an 11-play, 67-drive to put the hosts ahead 7-0.
The Cougars kept up the early pressure when sophomore Keanu Pettiford recovered a Granite Hills fumble at the 19-yard line. A few players later and Kirisimasi was in the end zone on a quarterback sneak to extend the lead to 13-0.
Granite Hills started to generate its own momentum when senior Joseph Holt recovered a fumble at the 42-yard line. The change of possession led to a two-yard rushing touchdown by Eagles sophomore Joaquin Thomas to trim the score to 13-7.
But the Cougars weren’t finished in the first half. After recording another fumble recovery, Givens scored on a one-yard run to make the score 19-7 following an unsuccessful two-point try.
The fireworks were only getting started, however, as McComb capped a 75-yard scoring march with a laser to senior Matt Keeley in the end zone to narrow the score to 19-14 with 52 seconds to play in the first half. Steele Canyon had an answer for that as Givens returned the ensuing kick-off 95 yards for a touchdown.
26-14 Cougars at the half.
The Eagles opened the second half with an 80-yard scoring run that featured a 45-yard run by McComb concluded with a five-yard touchdown pass from McComb to freshman Josh Zander.
Still down by six points at 26-20, Granite Hills recovered the ensuing on-side kick to get another crack at the end zone. Keeley scored his second touchdown of the game on a seven-yard strike from McComb to end another successful scoring drive to tie the game 26-all. The score remained tied following a blocked extra-point attempt by Steele Canyon sophomore Adrien Chargualaf.
Givens scored his third touchdown of the game on a six-yard sweep to allow the hosts to regain the lead at 33-26. But the Eagles weren’t done.
McComb hit junior tight end Zach Burton for a massive 39-yard gain up the center of the field. McComb capped the drive with a 19-yard scoring pass to Zander that made the score 33-32 after the PAT conversion sailed wide of the goalpost.
Steele Canyon still led by one point on the scoreboard with three minutes to play in the game.
But all that changed when senior Titus Darling intercepted a pass deep in the Eagles defensive zone and returned the ball 79 yards to the Cougar one-yard line.
Following the long interception return, McComb scored on a one-yard run, then scampered into the end zone for the successful two-point conversion to push the visitors in front by seven points at 40-33.
Zander and Keeley both caught two touchdown passes in the game for Granite Hills. Zander picked up his game following an exit from the game due to an injury to teammate Angel Almazon.
McComb had a big game in the second half to finish with 175 rushing yards to go with 250 passing yards and four touchdowns.
The senior signal-caller, who is bound for Southwest Minnesota State University, has now thrown for 12 touchdowns in four games.
Givens finished the game with 229 all-purpose yards by tacking on 95 kick return yards and 32 receiving yards.
The Cougars racked up 270 total offensive yards, about equally balanced between 139 rushing yards and 131 passing yards.
Chargualaf topped the Cougars with 14 tackles while sophomore Finley O’Gorman and senior Cannon Kanzius both recorded one sack. Junior Temo Rangel and Pettiford both recovered fumbles.
Kirisimasi also had one punt for 48 yards.
Granite Hills junior Chandler Boyer had eight catches for 89 yards while Steele Canyon senior Joshua Tendvahl had three catches for 90 yards.
Steele Canyon, which possesses a rather deceiving 1-3 record (0-2 in league), hosts Grossmont this Friday.
The young Cougars, committing seven turnovers, dropped a 14-0 decision to visiting Helix in the teams’ league opener on March 26.
