Slow-starting Titans get far but come up shy of goal

by Phillip Brents

The Eastlake Titans’ turnaround season ended with a runner-up finish in Saturday’s San Diego Section Division IV championship game at Southwestern College’s DeVore Stadium.

A disappointing 1-4 start ended with an inspiring 6-2run that salvaged the team’s season and propelled it into prime time.

But the final script contained an error on the last page: The fifth-seeded Titans lost 21-14 to the third-seeded Valley Center Jaguars.

“We had our ups and downs through the season,” said EHS head coach Jose Mendoza, whose team finished the season 7-7 overall. “We wanted to do better than we did. It’s disappointing. I’m proud of how we got here against all these good teams.”

The championship game against Valley Center (7-6) mirrored the Titans’ season in many ways. Eastlake fell behind 21-0 before rallying with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to make the outcome interesting.

Titan senior signal-caller Tyler Balko executed a perfect fake handoff and took off toward the opposite sideline and never stopped, motoring 93 yards for a breakaway touchdown.

Eastlake benefitted from a break on the Jaguars’ next series as, on fourth-and-three, the ball was hiked over the Valley Center punter’s head for a Titan recovery near the 20-yard line. A pass interference penalty moved the ball to the nine-yard line. On fourth-and-two, junior David Branco took a direct snap and scored with 2:56 to play.

It was a case of too little, too late. The damage had already been done with three interceptions and one lost fumble.

“It’s hard to say what would have happened without those turnovers,” Mendoza said.

David Branco scored Eastlake’s second touchdown in the division final loss. Photo by Jon Bigornia

The Titans trailed throughout the game, played in sunny conditions with a noon kickoff.

Senior Joeisha Ryan Tirado walked in from three yards to score Valley Center’s first touchdown with 3:20 remaining in the first quarter. Senior quarterback Braylon Mitchell scored the Jaguars’ second touchdown on a 15-yard run with 4:26 to play in the first half. A missed extra-point attempt left Eastlake staring at a 13-0 halftime deficit.

It was not insurmountable. But a turnover led to another VC touchdown and a 21-0 deficit with 3:36 left in the third quarter as senior Jesse Morales put away a 25-yard TD grab.

Mitchell completed 14 of 23 passing attempts for 208 yards with one touchdown while rushing for 18 yards on four attempts with one score. Tirado proved the Jags’ workhorse with 156 yards on 32 carries with one touchdown.

The offensive yard count weighed heavily in Valley Center’s favor: 382-95.

Defensively for Eastlake, senior Diego De La Vega recorded one sack. Senior Jake Naiman punted three times for a 35.7 average.

Senior Ryan Branco returned one kickoff 25 yards while junior J.P. Navarrete and freshman Justice Alcantara each had 20-yard kickoff returns.

“We had a slow start and faced a lot of adversity, but I wouldn’t have wanted to do this with any other team,” Balko said.

Photos by Phillip Brents

THREE EAST COUNTY TEAMS BID FOR CIF FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS, TWO WIN THEM

The winners: Granite Hills in Division I, Christian in Division III

Three East County high school football teams did battle in last weekend’s San Diego Section division championships. Two came home with titles.

The second-seeded Granite Hills Eagles, stung for a touchdown just 12 seconds into the Division I final and trailing 14-0 early on against the top-seeded Lincoln Hornets, persevered and reversed course for a dramatic 41-29 victory in front of 6,500 fans at Southwestern College’s DeVore Stadium to claim the team’s fourth consecutive CIF banner, a celebrated four-peat.

The sixth-seeded Christian Patriots also bucked the odds by defeating the top-seeded Central Union Spartans, 28-14, to capture the Division III championship in an earlier game on Saturday.

In a game played Friday night, the top-seeded Santa Fe Christian Eagles kept their undefeated season intact with a 44-41 win over the second-seeded Steel Canyon Cougars.

Granite Hills (10-3) and Christian (7-7) advance to the Southern California regional playoffs while the Cougars (9-4) end their season.

Christian will get the regional schedule going with a game Friday, Dec. 5, at 7 pm. at Cerritos Valley Christian (11-3) in a Division V-AA matchup.

Granite Hills will host Oxnard Pacifica (14-0) in a Division 1-A SoCal regional on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m.

There are 15 divisions at the state level. State championship bowl games are scheduled Dec. 12-13.

The Granite HIlls Eagles repeated as Division I champions as part of the program’s overall CIF four-peat. Photos by Jon Bigornia

Granite Hills: How do you spell four-peat?
In terms of high school sports, repeating as a champion at any level is difficult. Try doing that three times in a row is even more difficult, not to mention trying to do it four times in succession.

The four-time defending Grossmont Hills League champion Eagles repeated as Division I champions with their comeback victory against the Hornets while adding to previous CIF titles captured in 2023 in the Open Division and 2022 in Division II.

What does that add up to?

A four-peat, of course.

“Early they got a couple, then we slowed them down,” Granite Hills head coach Kellan Cobbs said. “We knew we had to play better. They’ve got a great program. A lot of teams would like to have as many wins as they have. We’re closing the gap.”

The gap is exactly what Granite Hills had to do for most of the game after Lincoln scored on the first play of the contest on an 80-yard bomb from senior Kainan Manna to junior Dareyen Bridges.

The Eagles appeared to do in kind as senior Parker Johnson returned the kickoff 61 yards. But Lincoln senior Cammeron Purnell intercepted the first pass of the game by Granite Hills junior quarterback Zachary Benitez to kill a potentially equalizing drive.

The turnover led to a 32-yard breakaway run by senior Rashad Robinson.

14-0 Hornets,

The East County kingpins righted themselves with back-to-back touchdowns to tie the game 14-all.

Granite Hills capped a 10-play, 80-yard field march on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Benitez to junior Zhedan Smith with 4:58 to play in the first quarter to halve the score at 14-7.

Lincoln sophomore Adell Nunez missed a 41-yard field goal attempt to hand the ball back to the Eagles.

Granite Hills engineered a 12-play, 80-yard drive to draw even on junior Gage Spalding’s one-yard scoring run.

But the Hornets stung back on a 51-yard touchdown run by senior Junior Curtis.

The big plays were only starting as Benitez, the leading passer among Division I teams, connected with senior Noah Walker on a 68-yard touchdown pass. The TD catch was the first of three in the game for Walker, the leading receiver among Division I teams.

The only blemish on the scoring play was a missed extra-point attempt to leave Lincoln with a 21-20 lead.

The Granite Hills defense dug down deep again to stop a Lincoln drive at the Eagles’ 33-yard line with 2:11 before halftime.

The teams exchanged touchdowns to start the second half.

Granite Hills took a 26-21 lead with 1:04 elapsed in the third quarter as Benitez hit Walker from eight yards out. The two-point conversion failed, however, to leave the Eagles with a five-point lead on the scoreboard.

That quickly evaporated.

Robinson took the ball in from the one-yard line with 8:24 to play in the quarter and junior Courtney Miller-Thompson scored on a two-point conversion to put the Hornets back in front, 29-26.

Granite Hills quarterback Zac Benitez does his best impression of the Heisman Trophy. Photo by Jon Bigornia

In what must have been a physically draining game for both teams, Granite Hills appeared to have more left in the tank with two huge touchdown plays to finally put the Eagles over the top.

Walker caught a 31-yard scoring pass to move the Eagles ahead on the scoreboard 33-29 with 1:34 left in the quarter.

The Granite Hills defense did what it was called upon one more time by stopping a Lincoln drive on downs with 9:45 to play in the fourth quarter.

Turnabout was fair play as an Eagle drive stalled at the Lincoln 14-yard line, followed by a missed 32-yard field goal attempt.

An incompletion on fourth-and-10 handed the ball to Granite Hills on the Hornets’ 20-yard line with 3:33 to play.

Hard running eventually nosed the ball to the one-yard line whereupon Spalding scored his second touchdown of the game.

The clincher occurred when Johnson completed a halfback pass to senior Tristan Diaz on the ensuing two-point conversion for a 12-point lead with just 1:53 left on the clock.

Sacks by seniors Wyatt MacLeod and Hunter Hamilton closed the door on the Hornets’ season.

“A lot of teams might have chucked it in (after going down 12 seconds into the game), but we kept things cool because we knew it was going to be a long game,” Benitez said.

“I had to come out and play with heart, get yards after catch,” Smith said.

“Just energy …we stayed positive,” Spalding said. “We knew we were going to slip up a bit. But we knew we could come back.”

The Eagles rolled up 500 yards in offense — 309 passing and 191 rushing — in a complete performance. Benitez completed 16 of 25 passes for 309 yards with four touchdowns and one interception while Walker caught seven passes for 189 yards and three scores. Smith had 71 yards and one TD on three catches.

Spalding had 17 carries for 101 yards and the two scores while junior Seth Rodrigues had nine carries for 40 yards and junior Anthony Mattar had five carries for 25 yards. Johnson had two carries for 12 yards. Diaz had four catches for 39 yards.

Junior Eurijah Schutza led the Eagles with 11 tackles while senior Brayden Wells and MacLeod each had 10 stops. Granite Hills recorded five sacks, including 3.5 by MacLeod and 1.5 by Hamilton.

Lincoln rushed for 305 yards, led by Curtis with 159 yards on 18 carries and Robinson with 129 yards on 19 carries. Manna passed for 224 yards — 146 to Bridges.

The Hornets totaled 529 offensive yards as the teams combined for 1,024 yards in the heavyweight bout.

Christian High School won its 11th San Diego Section division championship in school history. Photo by Phillip Brentrs

Christian: Long wait is over
Playing for a CIF championship was nothing new for Christian, which has nine division titles in its collection. But it was something completely new for the current group. The last time the El Cajon private school had won a CIF championship was in 2014 and the last time the school played for a banner was in 2016.

As the No. 6 seed in this year’s 12-team field, this year didn’t look too promising.

But the Patriots stared adversity in the eye and, in the words of head coach Patrick Bugg, “stayed the course and persevered.”

“I know everyone has injuries but with us being a small school with a small roster, losing two or three guys on some teams was really like losing five or six guys on our team because so many guys play on both sides of the ball,” he said. “The key to getting this far was guys stepping up and filling roles we didn’t think they could do, but who did.

“We had confidence in our defense. We just had to figure out a way to get more offensive production.”

That wasn’t a problem in Saturday’s division final.

Junior quarterback Kaleb Runkle completed 18 of 23 passing attempts for 280 yards and four touchdowns — two to senior Ronnie Scott (four catches, 129 yards) and one each to senior Hank Houston (three catches, 35 yards) and junior Soren Lucey (two catches, 40 yards).

Runkle also paced the division champions with 43 rushing yards on eight carries to finish the high-profile contest with 323 total yards in offense.

Runkle liked to throw deep in the game. Scott made a 52-yard catch while junior Kai Rosier (six catches, 70 yards) and Lucey each made grabs of 37 yards. Houston had a 25-yard TD catch.

Rosier tallied 140 all-purpose yards (70 receiving, 70 kickoff returns, two on punt returns).

The Patriots racked up 381 total yards in offense in the game — 281 passing and 101 rushing. Freshman Julian Morones keyed the team on the ground with seven carries for 41 yards, with one 28-yard scamper on the list.

The Pats also played some timely defense in securing the CIF championship. Junior Everick Randall led the team with nine tackles, including five unassisted stops, while senior Chase Togerson and Hayden Jeremiah each logged seven tackles. Scott, Houston and Lucey each turned in six defensive stops in key two-way performances.

As a team, the Christian defense turned in five tackles for losses, one sack and one interception.

Jeremiah had 1.5 tackles for a loss while Houston and Togerson each had one tackle for a loss. Morones and senior Hudson McFarlane shared one sack while Rosier made one interception.

Senior Steven Benson was successful on all four point-after-touchdown conversions.

Houston opened scoring with 9:09 remaining in the first quarter on a medium-range pass from Runkle. Benson tacked on the PAT for a 7-0 lead.

Scott made a 32-yard touchdown reception with 8:15 to play in the first half as the Pats doubled their lead to 14-0.

The Spartans did move the ball but Rosier’s pick in the back of the end zone killed a Central Union scoring chance with 25 seconds left before halftime.

It was a key momentum shift.

Chtistian quarterback Kaleb Runkle lobs the ball over a Central Union defender in Division III championship game. Photo by Phillip Brents

Christian signal-caller Kaleb Runkle completed four touchdown passes to lead the Patriots to victory, including two to Ronnie Scott III (below). Photos by Phillip Brents

The Spartans drove to the Christian 17-yard line to start the second half before turning the ball over on downs.

The El Cajon team turned the tables on its Imperial Valley opponent as Runkle passed down the middle of the field to a wide-open Lucey, who did the rest for a 21-0 lead with 11:52 to play in the game.

The game had been a tense affair with the Pats holding onto a two-touchdown lead. But three touchdowns gave the team a much-needed cushion.

Christian’s defense once again stopped Central Union on downs on a fourth-and-one play with 9:48 to play.

The Spartans finally broke through with 5:19 remaining but missed the extra-point conversion. The Patriots still led 21-6.

But there had been a momentum change. Centra Union scored again on a 10-yard catch by senior C.J. Acosta. A successful two-point conversion by senior Matthew Lizaola suddenly made the score 21-14 with 3:38 to go.

Things began to tense up again. But only briefly.

Any doubt was erased after only 15 seconds when Runkle swung a pass to the sideline to Scott, who broke loose unimpeded to the other end zone.

28-14.

Bonita’s Jacob Zacharzuk showcases the Division III championship trophy as a member of the victorious Christian Patriots. Photo by Phillip Brents

The Patriots defense forced a sack with 2:25 left and an incompletion on fourth down with 2:16 left to seal the victory.

“It was fabulous,” Christian senior lineman Jacob Zacharzuk said. “I had never experienced anything like that. It was a first.”

“We told the guys not to give up on each other,” Buggs said. “Playoff football is all about peaking at the right time.

“Last year, we had a good team but left points on the scoreboard (41-28 loss to No. 1 University City in the Division II quarterfinals). We faced some adversity in this game, but we fought through it. That’s what good teams do.”

Steele Canyon: Almost famous
The last time the Steele Canyon Cougars set foot on the Southwestern College turf, they defeated Half Moon Bay in the 2017 Division 3-A State Bowl championship game.

“The difference between that team and this team is that this team has more defense,” Steele Canyon head coach Scott Longerbone said. “We gave up a lot of points during that run.”

Indeed, the Cougars edged Half Moon Bay, also nicknamed the Cougars, 44-42 to win the state banner.

Steele Canyon, seeded second in this year’s Division II section bracket, showed some timely defense in last Friday’s final against the top-seeded Santa Fe Christian Eagles but just not enough of it. The Eagles’ offense proved too powerful to contend with in a high-scoring 44-41 loss to finish 9-4 on the season.

Santa Fe Christian, which remains the section’s lone undefeated team at 13-0, heads into the Southern California Division 2-A regional playoffs against likewise undefeated Rio Hondo Prep (14-0).

“It was pretty awesome to get here,” Steele Canyon junior quarterback Gavin Caha said. “We played some pretty tough opponents. We kept our spirits up through it all.”

Junior Dax Labrum passed for 268 yards and five touchdowns to power SFC while rushing five times for 42 yards en route to compiling 310 total yards.

The Eagles out-gained the Cougars 409-340 in offensive yards as the teams combined for 85 points.

Steele Canyon took a 14-10 lead on a 99-yard kickoff return by senior Nico Jara with 3:40 left in the first quarter.

Santa Fe Christian took flight with 20 unanswered points to lead 30-14 at halftime. Down 37-20, the Cougars rallied to narrow the score to 37-34. Down by 10 points, 44-34, the Cougs rallied again but ran out of time to complete a comeback.

The Rancho San Diego team put up some prolific numbers of its own. Caha completed 15 of 23 passes for 272 yards and two touchdowns while rushing 13 times for 43 yards and a touchdown en route to besting Labrum with 315 total yards on the night.

Senior Abel Lopez rushed eight times for 24 tough yards and two scores while junior Josiah Stocker (eight catches, 137 yards) and senior Jacob Henton (three catches, 96 yards) each caught touchdown passes.

SFC senior Braden Scott put on a kicking clinic with five PAT conversions and three field goals while also making a touchdown reception.

Steele Canyon senior Ace Woolf also was perfect on five PATs.

SoCal regionals
Open Division section champion Cathedral Catholic (10-2) will play Los Alamitos (12-12) in a Division 1-AA regional Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Long Beach City College while Division IV section champion Valley Center (7-6) will host Moreno Valley Valley View (9-5) also on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Division V section champion Morse (9-4) travels to meet Simi Valley Grace (11-3) Saturday at 6 p.m. at Moorpark College.

Christian High School

CIF FOOTBALL championships

1975: Class 1-A

1978: Class 1-A

1993: Division IV

1994: Division IV

1995: Division IV

2002: Division IV

2006: Division V

2011: Division V

2013: Division III