The Grossmont High School football team engineered one of the biggest turnarounds in the San Diego Section this season in going from a winless 0-10 campaign in 2022 to a runner-up finish in Saturday’s Division III championship game at Southwestern College.
Though the Foothillers’ season didn’t end with a coveted trophy, the La Mesa team nonetheless earned its share of respect from opponents aside from its 73-34 title game loss to the La Jolla Country Day Torreys.
In many ways, it was a journey from the basement to the penthouse.
“We had more players,” said first-year head coach Anthony Lawrence, a GHS alumnus, of the team’s turnaround. “There were kids who hadn’t played football who came out. We were really reinforced with numbers. They worked hard and believed.
“I knew with the guys we had and the talent we had that it was only a matter of time before we put it together. We were a different team from the spring and summer and from the first game to the 13th game. I knew if we got past the first two rounds of the playoffs that we would have grown together to jell.”
That seminal moment came in a 30-14 upset win over top-ranked Mission Bay in the semifinals. What was left was to win the school’s first CIF banner in the sport since 1971.
It’s a wait that will be a little longer now, but maybe not too long in the future.
Fourth-seeded Grossmont (7-6) opened the game with some trickery en route to scoring the game’s opening touchdown on a two-yard run by senior quarterback Hudson Herber. The Foothillers went for the two-point conversion and were successful on a pass from Herber to senior Elias Burlaza.
The sixth-seeded Torreys (11-3) got their high-profile passing game together afterward to take control of the game.
Senior quarterback Jaden Mangini, bound for the Naval Academy, had a hand or foot in all 10 LJCD touchdowns — six passing, four rushing — to cap a superlative personal performance.
The Torreys countered with a 60-yard scoring pass from Mangini to junior Jordan Hochberg, 29-yard field goal by senior Will Sach, six-yard Mangini scoring run and a 34-yard TD pass from Mangini to senior Madden Craig to leap in front 31-8.
Grossmont narrowed the halftime score to 31-22 on a one-yard sneak by Herber, a one-yard pass from Herber to junior Parker Vanderburgh and a two-point conversion to junior Amari Riley.
But the Torreys stole the spotlight once again by scoring four unanswered touchdowns to kick off the second half. Mangini scored on runs of one and 38 yards while passing 28 yards to sophomore Quentin Cesaire and 42 yards to Craig.
59-22 LJCD.
Herber passed 10 yards to junior Thomas Donovan and one yard to Burlaza to complete scoring for the Foothillers while Mangini passed 39 yards to Craig and tacked on a one-yard run to finally complete scoring in the 107-point contest.
The game ended mercifully with a running clock.
Mangini passed for 429 yards with six touchdowns and one interception and rushed 22 times for 113 yards to collect 542 of his team’s 584 total yards. Craig had nine catches for 194 yards while Cesaire had three catches for 94 yards. Hochberg had four catches for 88 yards.
Herber was involved in all five of Grosssmont’s touchdowns with three passing scores and two rushing scores.
LJCD harried the Foothillers’ offense (304 passing yards) all game while recording four sacks (three by senior Christopher Hughes) and four interceptions.
Vanderburgh had seven catches for 77 yards while Riley had five catches for 69 yards. Senior Zelan Reynolds keyed the Grossmont defense with eight tackles and one pick.
