The Granite Hills High School football team checked off the first of its bucket list for the 2024 season by earning no worse than a share of this year’s Grossmont Hills League championship title after defeating the host Helix Highlanders, 35-21, on Oct. 24.
The No. 6 Eagles can remove the “co” label with a victory against the visiting Grossmont Foothillers on Friday.
Either way, it’s the third consecutive league title for Granite Hills. The Eagles can now begin charting a course for the upcoming section playoffs.
Exactly in which division they will compete remains open until the final whistle of Friday’s game sounds.
The top four teams in the final CalPreps rankings advance to the Open Division playoffs, which the Eagles won last year. The next 12 teams qualify for the Division I playoffs. It the playoffs started tomorrow, the El Cajon team would be ranked No. 2 among Division I teams and a favorite to advance to the division final, if not win it.
“Coming into the season, we knew that both us and Helix had lost a lot to graduation and that Mt. Miguel had added some guys,” Granite Hills head coach Kellan Cobbs said. “We knew those would be the three teams to beat, and we beat both of them (Helix and Mt. Miguel).
“We’re still hoping to get into the Open Division. That’s always a goal for our team. If we make the Open Division, we’ll do everything we can. Lincoln seems to be head and shoulders above everyone else. But we found a way to beat them last year.
“If we are in the Division I playoffs, we’ll do everything we can to win it.”
The was a lot of drama throughout the game against Helix, which could be among the favorites to win the Division II section title.
The biggest shift in momentum came with 2:11 remaining in the fourth quarter with visiting Granite Hills nursing a 28-21 lead but facing fourth-down and two yards to go just inside its own 35-yard line.
Cobbs called a timeout. Initially it appeared the punting unit would come onto the field and kick the ball to the Highlanders to give them one last chance to force overtime. Instead, Cobbs sent the offense back onto the field.
It was a gamble, a somewhat high stakes one, in that if the Eagles got those needed two yards that they could likely run out the clock. However, it the Scotties came up with a defensive stop, all the momentum would be on the home side just 30-plus yards from paydirt.
The hand-off went to senior Max Turner, who bulled into the line and then under it as he lowered his body while scrambling along the turf.
The call by the Granite Hills coach paid off. First down.
There was still time left on the clock. The Eagles weren’t done, as it turned out, as with 1:24 remaining in the game, sophomore Anthony Mattar found a hole through the line for a jaw-dropping 65-yard breakaway touchdown that sealed the contest’s outcome.
“Our running backs, all three of them, have been doing a great job and I have a lot of confidence in them,” Cobbs said. “I told our defensive staff that if we didn’t make it that they would have to stop them (Helix), and they said they would. Anything can happen in a high school football game.”
Granite Hills tallied 541 yards in total offense — 380 rushing yards on 56 carries and 161 passing yards on 15 attempts.
Turner rushed for 200 yards on 30 carries, scoring twice on the ground. He added 11 receiving yards and one score through the air for three total touchdowns in the high impact match-up.
Mattar rushed 10 times for 119 yards while sophomore Gage Spalding rushed 14 times for 53 yards, each with one TD to their credit.
Junior Tristan Diaz led the Eagles with 67 receiving yards while senior Brenden Lewis had one catch for 31 yards. Senior Lathan Fry had one catch for 16 yards while junior Emilio Vera had one catch for 15 yards.
Senior Pablo Jackson, a former Eagle before transferring to Helix, was hard to catch with his speed and mobility while taking snaps from the wildcat position.
But the Granite Hills defense had a lot to say with three interceptions — one each by seniors Parker Vance and Trevor Smith and junior Logan Vance.”
“We just had to stop the run, especially with Pablo,” Smith said. “We knew if we could do that, we’d had a good chance to win.”
Grossmont enters Friday’s game with a 4-5 overall record, 1-2 in league play. Mt. Miguel remains chasing the Eagles for a share of first place with a 7-2 overall record, 3-1 in league play. Helix is 3-6 overall, 1-2 in league, while Steele Canyon is 4-5 overall, 0-3 in league play.
El Capitan all but wrapped up this year’s Grossmont Valley League title by muzzling the West Hills Wolf Pack, 41-0, in the teams’ Tony Burner Memorial trophy game last Friday as senior Brandt Barker passed for 168 yards and four touchdowns.