The San Diego Section football playoffs are getting downright crowded with South County teams. Six local squads were in action during last Friday’s opening round of the divisional playoffs, and six are set to take the field in this Friday’s quarterfinal round.
Highlighting last week’s showings were dominating wins recorded by the Castle Park Trojans and Otay Ranch Mustangs.
Castle Park, seeded sixth in the Division IV field, shut out the 11th-seeded Monte Vista Monarchs, 36-0, while Otay Ranch, seeded sixth in the Division II field, roughed up the 11th-seeded Brawley Wildcats by a score of 35-0.
Both the Trojans (7-4) and Mustangs (6-5) remain in contention for division titles. Third-seeded Bishop’s, the defending Division IV champion, will host Castle Park (at Madison High School) while Otay Ranch will play at third-seeded Granite Hills (9-1).
The winners of those two games advance to the division semifinals in a post-Thanksgiving bonanza on Nov. 27.
Also in action on Friday are four teams that received first-round byes:
•Seventh-seeded Eastlake (5-5) will play second-seeded St. Augustine (8-2) in an Open Division match-up at San Diego Mesa College. The winner advances to meet either third-seeded Mission Hills (10-0) or sixth-seeded La Costa Canyon (7-3) in the semifinals.
•Top-seeded Bonita Vista (8-2) will play ninth-seeded Patrick Henry (5-6) in a Division III contest at Southwestern College. The winner will play either fourth-seeded Santa Fe Christian (9-1) or fifth-seeded Imperial (6-5) in the semifinals.
•Top-seeded Mater Dei Catholic (9-1) will host ninth-seeded Kearny (6-5) while fourth-seeded Mar Vista (7-3) will host fifth-seeded Southwest El Centro (9-2) in a pair of Division IV encounters. The winners of both games will meet in the semifinals.
Land of Troy
Castle Park, two-time Metro-Pacific League champions, pounced on the Monarchs (2-9) from the onset. The Trojans recovered a fumble in the opening seconds of the game and CP quarterback Angelo Trujillo, the league’s offensive player of the year, quickly capitalized on the turnover by connecting with teammate Anthony Navarro on a 14-yard touchdown pass.
The extra-point conversion failed to give the hosts a 6-0 lead, but they quickly added to that total with a vengeance.
Arthur Zertuche kicked a 29-yard field goal to give Castle Park a 9-0 lead at the end of the opening quarter. The Trojans got their offense into full gear with three more touchdowns to lead 29-0 at halftime.
Miguel Flores scored on a nine-yard run, with Zertuche supplying the PAT conversion, to make the score 16-0.
Charles Tolbert then caught a 72-yard scoring pass from Trujillo to up the score to 23-0. Tolbert caught the ball on the fly and didn’t lose a step down the sideline to the end zone.
Tolbert then caught a 42-yard TD pass with 2:01 left in the half. The extra-point conversion was blocked, leaving the hosts in front 29-0.
Other than the two missed PAT conversions, Castle Park played a near-perfect first half. The second-half proved more defensive-minded as Monte Vista showed some life on the offensive side of the ball.
Flores scored the only touchdown of the second half on a 13-yard run while carrying defenders into the end zone.
Trujillo finished with a big night. He completed 10 of 21 passing attempts for 229 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He also rushed once for a 38-yard gain on a fourth down carry. On defense, he made five tackles, returned an intercepted pass 27 yards and also was credited with one fumble recovery. He also punted once for 30 yards.
Flores rushed 11 times for 88 yards and scored two touchdowns while Tolbert had five catches for 171 yards and two TDs.
“I just think about catching the football and scoring, I really only think about catching the ball,” explained Tolbert, who has 19 catches for 388 yards and three TDs this season.
The Trojans amassed 238 rushing yards in the game to finish with 467 total offensive yards.
Navarro had two catches for 28 yards and also rushed three times for six yards. Jesus Ortega rushed six times for 47 yards while Arien Smith had three carries for 32 yards and Ray Morfin had four carries for 22 yards. Issac Zavala had four catches for 30 yards.
Flores and Alberto Olmos led the CP defense each with 10 tackles while Flores had one sack. Alonso Pereyda also had an interception.
For the season, Trujillo has passed for 2,083 yards with 20 touchdowns against just five picks.
Castle Park has steadily gained momentum after a 1-2 season start.
Trujillo said his own success has benefitted from the play of the team’s defense. The Trojans stopped the Monarchs on fourth down six times in last Friday’s playoff contest.
“I think we played together as a team,” Tolbert said in regard to last Friday’s playoff win. “No one tried t do it themselves.”
“It means a lot, it’s a win to get us to the next level,” Trujillo added.
“We played with a dominant defense,” CPHS head coach Hans Graham stated. “We had a great week of practice, hopefully we can have another great week of practice.”
The Trojans have revenge on their minds after last year’s 49-14 blowout loss to Bishop’s.
Team leaders for the Knights (6-4) include sophomore quarterback Jeffrey Jackson, sophomore Mozes Mooney and senior running back A.J. Britanico.
Jackson has passed for 1,846 yards with 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions while Britanico has rushed for 1,067 yards and 10 TDs. Mooney has amassed 899 receiving yards and 15 TDs.
Horse power
Arturo Saenz stepped up in replacing injured starting quarterback Oscar Limon in last Friday’s playoff win for Otay Ranch. Saenz threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score to lead the Mustangs.
Otay Ranch scored five touchdowns in the shutout win. Sam Stephens, Geri Madbalayan and Saenz each scored rushing touchdowns while Saenz completed touchdown passes to Adrian Rodriguez and Ennovy Halton.
The Mustangs led, 14-0, after the first quarter and 21-0 at halftime. Bernardino Soto converted all five PAT conversion attempts.
“I was very happy with the effort and physical play of my kids,” ORHS head coach Lance Christensen explained. “I felt that we were very successful in all three phases of the game. Arturo Saenz did a great job at quarterback throwing two touchdown passes and running one in himself.”
Almost famous
Four local squads ended their seasons in last Friday’s opening round.
Olympian, seeded 10th in the Division I field, dropped a highly competitive 21-14 match-up at seventh-seeded Torrey Pines. The Eagles, who ran off an imposing five-game winning streak in the first half of the season, ended their season with five consecutive losses.
Hilltop, seeded 10th in the Division III field, ended its season with a 49-6 loss at seventh-seeded Fallbrook to snap a two-game winning streak.
In the inaugural Division VI (eight-man) playoffs, both South County entrants — Ocean View Christian Academy and Chula Vista Calvary Christian Academy — came up short. Ocean View, seeded third, lost 55-30 to second-seeded Rock Academy while top-seeded Calvary Christian was eliminated by fourth-seeded Calvin Christian, 29-8.
Calvin Christian (7-3) will host the Rock Academy (8-3) this Friday at 7 p.m. in the Division VI championship game. The teams will play for the Commissioner’s Cup.
SAN DIEGO SECTION
FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS
Quarterfinals
Friday, Nov. 20
All games 7 p.m.
Open Division
(7) Eastlake (5-5) vs. (2) St. Augusitne (8-2) at Mesa College
Division II
(6) Otay Ranch (6-5) at (3) Granite Hills (9-1), 7 p.m..
Division III
(9) Patrick Henry (5-6) vs. (1) Bonita Vista (8-2) at Southwestern College
Division IV
(9) Kearny (6-5) at (1) Mater Dei Catholic (9-1)
(6) Castle Park (7-4) vs. (3) Bishop’s (6-4) at Madison High School
