Otay Ranch head coach Lance Christensen — and Mustang fans, in general — had to be biting their nails during the first half of last Friday’s east side rivalry game against the visiting Olympian Eagles.
The Mustangs had worked hard to match the Eagles with an unbeaten record heading into the teams’ Metro-Mesa League matchup. But the league lead looked temporary as the visitors took a two-score lead at halftime.
But in rivalry games, strange things often happen. In this case, change “strange” to “stirring,” as for the second consecutive week Otay Ranch staged a dramatic second-half rally to pull off a key victory.
The Battle of the O’s rivalry trophy went to the host Mustangs via a dramatic 35-23 come-from-behind win.
It was definitely a tale of two halves for the east side neighborhood rivals.
Olympian scored first and its defense held Otay Ranch through the first quarter. Otay Ranch’s offense started to kick in during the second quarter and managed to close gap by halftime, though still trailing.
The second half was a completely different story. A quick strike on the opening drive of the third quarter by Otay Ranch put the Mustangs into high gear. Meanwhile, the Otay Ranch defense shut out Olympian the rest of the game.
With that victory, the Mustangs took over sole possession of first place in the Metro-Mesa League standings. Otay Ranch improved to 2-0 in league play, 5-3 overall.
With the loss, the Eagles saw their league record drop to 1-1. Olympian is 4-4 overall.
The Mustangs kicked off league play with a dramatic 31-28 come-from-behind win over the visiting Eastlake Titans on Oct. 6.
Otay Ranch has now defeated both Eastlake and Olympian for the first time in the same season.
It took another major effort to do that. Otay Ranch erased a two-score deficit — 23-7 — with a run of 28 unanswered points.
Christensen credited the poised play of junior quarterback Puka Stewart as a key element in the victory.
Tale of two halves
It certainly looked good early on for the visiting Eagles.
Nico Mendoza threw a 21-yard scoring pass to Isaiah Williams for a 6-0 Olympian lead.
The Eagles went ahead 9-0 on a 20-yard field goal by Erik Duarte following a fumble recovery by teammate Jared Desmond.
The Mustangs carved into the early Olympian lead on a two-yard rushing touchdown by Gus Espiritu with two minutes to play in the first quarter.
Williams extended the Eagles lead to 16-7 courtesy of a six-yard rushing touchdown early in the second quarter.
The visitors took a 23-7 lead midway through the quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by Mendoza.
Otay Ranch would not allow another point in the game.
The Eagles would not score the rest of the first half and not at all in the second half while Otay Ranch mounted an inspired 28-point comeback to win the game.
The Mustangs made it 23-14 on a 30-yard scoring pass from Stewart to Josh Lira with four minutes to play in the first half.
Otay Ranch closed the gap to 23-21 on a 49-yard touchdown pass from Stewart to Zeek Cruz in the opening minutes of the third quarter.
The Mustangs took their first lead of the game, 28-23, with seven minutes to play in the quarter when Espiritu broke off a 22-yard scoring run.
Otay Ranch wasn’t finished, adding another touchdown — a rushing score by Sammy Paranada — in the late stages of the quarter to go up 35-23.
Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.
The Mustangs’ 21-0 scoring edge in the third quarter proved to be the back breaker in the contest.
Stewart completed 10 of 17 passing attempts for 216 yards with two touchdowns.
Lira made four catches for 101 yards with one touchdown. Cruz finished the game with 135 all-purpose yards (, 21 rushing, 49 receiving, 65 kick returns) while Stewart racked up 225 total yards (216 passing, nine rushing) in the game.
Espiritu rushed 12 times for 87 yards and two touchdowns; Paranada had eight carries for 56 yards.
Kristian Salazar was perfect on all five extra-point conversions for the Mustangs.
Otay Ranch cannot rest on its laurels as the Mustangs travel to Southwestern College on Friday to play the winless Bonita Vista Barons (0-2, 0-8). There’s no time to overlook any opponent at this stage of the season.
Olympian has a bye week before resuming league play with an Oct. 27 matchup against visiting Mater Dei Catholic.
The Crusaders (1-0, 4-3) play at Eastlake (0-1, 5-2) this Friday.
Metro-Mesa banner chase heating up for D-I playoff seeds
ording to the latest MaxPreps high school football poll, the Eastlake Titans are ranked 14th among this year’s collection of San Diego Section teams. Considering there are more than 80 schools fielding 11-man football teams this year, that’s not bad at all.
But it could be better.
The Titans had soared as high as No. 10 in the weekly section media rankings until they were toppled in a 31-28 loss at Otay Ranch in the teams’ Metro-Mesa League opener on Oct. 6.
Eastlake takes an 0-1 league record into Friday’s league matchup against the visiting Mater Dei Catholic Crusaders, who find themselves 1-0 in league play following last Friday’s 21-0 win over visiting Bonita Vista.
Everyone is now chasing Otay Ranch in the league standings following the Mustangs’ intrepid 35-23 come-from-behind win over visiting Olympian last week.
Otay Ranch (2-0 in league play) is at Bonita Vista (0-2 in league) on Friday while Olympian has a bye week.
The question how becomes: can anyone unseat the Mustangs from the apparent driver’s seat to capture this year’s league championship?
It’s going to take at least one upset loss by Otay Ranch and wins by the other teams in their remaining games.
But anything is possible, including a return to the section’s top 10 rankings for the Titans.
Eastlake, Olympian and Bonita Vista will all seemingly qualify for this year’s Division I playoffs. It’s uncertain whether the Titans or Eagles can make the jump for inclusion in the Elite Eight Open Division playoffs.
However, both Eastlake and Olympian will be scrambling for seeds within the division as the season speeds to a close. Eastlake hosts Olympian Nov. 3 in a game that could well determine home field advantage in the playoffs.
If teams were seeded according to the latest MaxPreps rankings, the Titans would be seeded fourth among Division I teams and the Eagles seventh.
Otay Ranch, meanwhile, is bidding for a home field playoff game either in the Division II opening round or quarterfinal round.
Stay tuned.
Crusader state
Mater Dei Catholic has won its last two games by a combined score of 56-7.
Jack Ryan scored on a 30-yard interception return to break a scoreless tie early in the second quarter, quarterback Cameron Smith tossed a five-yard scoring pass to Shaun Jones with a minute left in the quarter and Smith then rushed for a two-yard touchdown early in the third quarter to lift the host Crusaders to the shutout win over the Barons in their league opener.
Meter Dei Catholic improved to 4-3 overall while Bonita Vista dropped to 0-8 on the season, 0-2 in league play.
Eastlake’s offense has been fairly balanced this season with 1,378 rushing yards and 1,064 passing yards. The Titans appear to be rushing by committee, with six players each recording at least one touchdown via the run.
The Titans are averaging 348.9 offensive yards per game.
Utility man Micah Pietila-Wiggs (22 carries, 153 yards) leads the team with five rushing touchdowns while Roman Coe (85 carries, 438 yards) and Parker Merrifield (50 carries, 377 yards) have each scored three touchdowns. Quarterback Ryzhon McCoy has (28 carries, 228 yards) has scored two touchdowns.
Quarterback Daniel Amon has come on of late to increase his passing yardage to 937 with 10 touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s also scored one rushing touchdown.
Top receivers include Jalyn Jackson (13 catches, 385 yards), Pietila-Wiggs (21 catches, 279 yards) and Kevin Bateman (10 catches, 139 yards). Jackson leads the team with four receiving touchdowns while Pietila-Wiggs and Bateman each have logged three TD catches.
Pietila-Wiggs leads Eastlake with 642 all-purpose yards and eight touchdowns — five rushing, three receiving. Amon leads the team with 968 total yards.
Defensively, the Titans have many ways to halt an offensive drive.
Josh McCurty leads the team with 103 tackles. Sack leaders include Donyal Thompson (seven) and Richard Corpus (six).
Pietila-Wiggs leads the team with four interceptions while Thompson has two fumble recoveries.
