The San Diego Section is sending six teams to this weekend’s Southern California regional playoffs, all with a chance to land in the following weekend’s state championship games.
The Granite Hills Eagles and Mt. Miguel Matadors will represent East County in the fray.
Both reigning section division champions will open their state title quest on the road.
Granite Hills (12-0) will play at Mission Viejo (11-3) on Friday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. The winner will play either Clovis North (13-0) or De la Salle (10-2) for the state Division 1-AA championship.
Mt. Miguel (12-1) will play at Mayfair (11-3) on Saturday, Dec. 2, at 6 p.m. The winner will play either Oakland McClymonds (8-2) or Marin Catholic (12-1) for the state Division 3-A championship.
Six San Diego Section divisional champions (Open through D-V) qualified for the regional playoffs.
Third-seeded Granite Hills outlasted top-seeded Lincoln, 27-26, in the section’s Open Division title game Nov. 18 at Snapdragon Stadium.
Top-seeded Mt. Miguel defeated second-seeded Chula Vista, 35-14, last Friday in the Division IV championship game at Southwestern College.
The victory by the Matadors (12-1) was memorable in that the last time the Spring Valley school won at CIF football title was at the Class 1A level in 1960.
It’s been an extraordinarily long 63-year wait.
“It feels amazing,” Mt. Miguel head coach Verlain Betofe said. “The kids worked so hard to get here. I’m so proud of them. It’s amazing for the community and the school. We want to be the best team in San Diego and the best team in California. We’re going to keep working toward that.”
The Matadors defeated Vista, 40-13, to claim their first CIF championship in 1960. The outcome of this year’s second CIF title also wasn’t in doubt as the Matadors built a 28-0 halftime lead and led 35-0 midway through the third quarter.
Senior quarterback Matthew Barton completed 18 of 28 passes for 214 yards and five touchdowns with one interception. He also rushed five times for 30 yards to finish the contest with 243 total yards.
Barton threw a pair of scoring passes each to senior Jeremiah Castillo (four catches, 88 yards) and sophomore Parris Vernon (seven catches, 76 yards). The Matador signal-caller also completed two passes for 21 yards to senior Johnny Castro and two passes for 18 yards to junior Braylon Cardwell.
Barton’s five TD passes set a school post-season record.
The Matadors gained 90 rushing yards on 17 carries. Senior Christian Lopez gained 29 yards on four carries while sophomore Zane Rottier gained 27 yards one four rushes.
Mt. Miguel out-gained Chula Vista 304-234 in total yards.
Castillo staked the Matadors to a relatively quick 14-0 lead on touchdown catches of 22 and 11 yards. Vernon continued the scoring in the second quarter with TD receptions of 22 and 19 yards.
Barton completed the aerial fireworks with a 46-yard scoring bomb to Castillo with 7:14 remaining in the third quarter.
The Matadors recorded three interceptions on defense — one each by Castillo, sophomore Vincent Proyor and freshman Dominic Lopez.
Mt. Miguel previously defeated Chula Vista, the two-time defending Metro-Pacific League champions, by a score of 49-0 in a non-league match-up in Week 2 of the regular season. The Spartans (10-3) would not be shut out in the rematch as junior quarterback Izaac Baca hit junior receiver Elijah Gillespie on a nine yard pass play with 7:51 to play in the fourth quarter and junior La’Darrione Perkins broke loose for a 36-yard scoring run very late in the game.
Gillespie caught a two-point conversion pass to close out scoring.
Baca was limited to 65 passing yards with three picks. Chula Vista had more success on the ground with 169 rushing yards on 28 carries. Perkins had 15 carries for 114 yards while junior Paul Alvarez had 11 carries for 48 yards.
Gillespie had six catches for 41 yards.
The loss to the Matadors snapped a six-game winning streak by the Spartans.
“We gave all that we had,” CVHS head coach Howard Bannister III said. “Hats off to them. They made some big plays.”
Chula Vista senior running back/safety Paul Alvarez and Mt. Miguel senior outside linebacker Eric White received CIF sportsmanship awards for their respective teams.
Mt. Miguel carries an eight game winning streak into Saturday’s regional playoff game.
