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 5-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.
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.
