The San Diego Section tackle football playoffs have kicked off. Games in five of the eight divisions got under way last Friday. There were six upsets of lower-seeded teams defeating higher-seeded teams to spice up the action.
A total of 13 East County teams qualified for this year’s playoff field. Ten were in action last Friday — four came out victorious.
Including teams with opening-round byes, seven local teams are still in the hunt for division championships.
In games this Friday, top-seeded Helix Charter (8-2) will host No. 8 Torrey Pines (6-4) in a Division I quarterfinal while No. 4 Granite Hills (7-3) will host No. 5 San Marcos (5-5). The winners advance to the division semifinals.
The division championship game is Nov. 27 at Southwestern College at 7 p.m.
Also on tap on Friday are four other games:
•No. 1 Steele Canyon (5-5) will host No. 9 Valhalla (7-4) in a Division III quarterfinal contest.
•No. 7 West Hills (8-3) will play at No. 2 Maranatha Christian (8-2) in a Division IV quarterfinal.
•No. 8 El Capitan (7-4) will play at No. 1 Valley Center (5-5) in another Division IV quarterfinal clash.
•No. 4 Mountain Empire (6-4) will play at No. 1 Escondido Charter (10-1) in a Division 5-AA semifinal game.
The Division III championship game is Nov. 28 at Escondido High School at 3:30 p.m.
The Division IV championship game is Nov. Nov. 27 at Southwestern College at 3 p.m.
The Division V championship game is Nov. 28 at Escondido High School at noon.
The Division V-AA championship game is Nov. 20 at Escondido High School at 7 p.m.
Teams ending their seasons last Friday included No. 12 Mount Miguel (2-8) in the Division II opening round, No. 11 Grossmont (7-4) in the Division II opening round, No. 8 Christian (6-5) in the Division III opening round, No. 9 Santana (7-4) in the Division IV opening round, No. 16 Monte Vista (3-8) in the Division V opening round and No. 8 Foothills Christian (5-5) in the Division V-AA quarterfinals.
Moving on
El Capitan enters the Division IV quarterfinals riding a six-game winning streak. The Vaqueros opened up a 7-0 first quarter lead in last Friday’s opener against the Sultans and led 21-7 at halftime before putting the game away with a 21-0 second-half run to win 42-7.
Junior Hayden Passanisi passed for one touchdown while the hosts racked up five rushing touchdowns: two by senior Anthony Mattar (six carries, 41 yards) and one each by junior Michael Castillo (nine carries, 93 yards), senior Michael Valencia II (three carries, 22 yards) and sophomore Maverick Darnell (two carries, 46 yards).
Junior Cota Lachappa had two catches for 37 yards and one touchdown. Senior Elijah Arzu compiled 127 all-purpose yards (64 rushing, 63 punt returns).
El Capitan out-gained Santana 383-192 in total yards — 268-68 in rushing yards.
Sultan senior quarterback Ethan Miller passed for 85 yards with one interception. Senior Kolton Thornton had eight carries for 32 yards while senior Ethan Smith had one catch for 34 yards.
The Vaqueros logged two sacks on defense and one interception (sophomore Robinson Silva for 20 yards). Senior Ryder Powers collected six kicking points.
Senior quarterback Evin Dill racked up 198 total yards (114 rushing, 84 passing) to help guide West Hills past RBV 24-14. The Wolf Pack recorded three rushing touchdowns — one each by Dill, junior Marcus Leath (five carries, 81 yards) and Evan Dorris (seven carries, 19 yards) — while tacking on a 26-yard field goal by sophomore Bryce Robinson.
Junior Chuck Rosolino had three catches for 42 yards while Leath had one catch for 32 yards.
Senior E.J. Lee-Fields led the Wolf Pack with 12 tackles on defense. Overall, West Hills registered seven tackles for losses and three sacks. Senior Zach Waters had three tackles for losses, including two sacks, while senior Scott Miller had one fumble recovery.
Valhalla led 6-0 at halftime in a tightly-contested game against the Patriots, last year’s Division III champions, before adding 12 points in the second half to counter 13 points by the hosts to win 18-13.
The resurgent Norsemen rolled up 334 yards in total offense.
Junior Adrian Wilson passed for 258 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Sophomore T’Marrion Williams had five catches for 147 yards while sophomore Camryn Conley had 117 yards on six catches. On the ground, senior Jayden Hunter gained 57 yards on 21 carries.
Defensively, junior Desmond Demara recorded 12 tackles and two sacks while sophomore Amar’e Young collected 10 tackles and one fumble recovery.
Valhalla missed the extra-point conversion on all three touchdowns, leaving the door open for sophomore Pierson Cunningham to boot field goals of 31 and 40 yards to narrow the score to 12-6. A late 29-yard touchdown by sophomore Gavin Runkle closed the gap but the Patriots were thwarted on an onside kick attempt to mount a potential game-wining drive.
Mountain Empire will make it two straight trips to the semifinals in as many years when they take on top-seeded Escondido Charter (10-1) this Friday.
The Redhawks withstood 323 passing yards to prevail 55-28.
“Our run game was working incredible — we rushed for over 500 yards and had eight touchdowns,” Mountain Empire head coach Cameron Keller said.
Junior Elisha Robinson rushed for 424 yards and six touchdowns to lead the Redhawks, who lost to Palo Verde Valley in last year’s semifinals.
“We need to have a good week of practice and play all four quarters to beat a good team like Escondido Charter,” Keller said.
Season enders
Mount Miguel junior Enrique Gonzalez passed for 132 yards and one touchdown to senior Dominic Lopez (one catch, 24 yards) in a 56-7 loss at No. 5 Mater Dei Catholic. The game was fairly close early on before the Crusaders (5-6) pulled away as the game developed.
Mater Dei Catholic held the Matadors to 39 rushing yards.
Grossmont led 19-0 at halftime over El Camino, which entered the game 1-9. But the Wildcats scored the final 15 points in the game to escape with a 29-26 win.
No. 6 El Camino chalked up 457 yards in total offense with two rushing touchdowns an two passing touchdowns.
For Grossmont, junior Jacob Fee scored on a three-yard run, junior Cedric Norris caught a 53-yard scoring pass from senior quarterback Tyler Holmes and later connected with senior Jonah Martinez on a halfback pass for a 29-yard touchdown. Holmes later scored on a quarterback keeper.
Foothills junior Hayden Oleson passed for 184 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in a 49-14 loss to Escondido Charter. Sophomore Liam Dailey keyed the Knights with 162 receiving yards on eight catches and one touchdown while senior Jonah Notolli had one TD catch for four yards.
Senior David Stewart rushed 16 times for 66 yards while junior Drew Mikulsky led the team with 11 tackles on defense.
