In terms of high school sports, repeating as a champion at any level is difficult. Doing that three times in a row is even more difficult, not to mention trying to do it four times in succession.
The Granite Hills Eagles are pigskin kings once again after slaying the top-seeded Lincoln Hornets’ Goliath, 41-29, to claim rights to this year’s San Diego Section Division I football championship last Saturday, Nov. 29, in front of 6,500 fans at Southwestern College.
The four-time defending Grossmont Hills League champion Eagles repeated as Division I champions 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 king 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.
The turnover led to a 32-yard breakaway run by senior Rashad Robinson.
14-0 Hornets.
The East County kingpins righted themselves with backto- back touchdowns to tie the game 14-all.
Granite Hills capped a 10-play, 80-yard field march on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Benitez to junior Zhedan Smith with 4:58 to play in the first quarter to halve the score at 14-7.
Lincoln sophomore Adell Nunez missed a 41-yard field goal attempt to hand the ball back to the Eagles.
Granite Hills engineered a 12-play, 80-yard drive to draw even on junior Gage Spalding’s one-yard scoring run.
But the Hornets stung back on a 51-yard touchdown run by senior Junior Curtis.
The big plays were only starting as Benitez, the leading passer among Division I teams, connected with senior Noah Walker on a 68-yard touchdown pass. The TD catch was the first of three in the game for Walker, the leading receiver among Division I teams.
The only blemish on the scoring play was a missed extrapoint attempt to leave Lincoln with a 21-20 lead. The Granite Hills defense dug down deep again to stop a Lincoln drive at the Eagles’ 33-yard line with 2:11 before halftime. The teams exchanged touchdowns to start the second half.
Granite Hills took a 26-21 lead with 1:04 elapsed in the third quarter as Benitez hit Walker from eight yards out. The two-point conversion failed, however, to leave the Eagles with a five-point lead on the scoreboard.
That quickly evaporated.
Robinson took the ball in from the one-yard line with 8:24 to play in the quarter and junior Courtney Miller-Thompson scored on a two-point conversion to put the Hornets back in front, 29-26.
In what must have been a physically draining game for both teams, Granite Hills appeared to have more left in the tank with two huge touchdown plays to finally put the Eagles over the top.
Walker caught a 31-yard scoring pass to move the Eagles ahead on the scoreboard 33-29 with 1:34 left in the quarter. The Granite Hills defense did what it was called upon one more time by stopping a Lincoln drive on downs with 9:45 to play in the fourth quarter.
Turnabout was fair play as an Eagle drive stalled at the Lincoln 14-yard line, followed by a missed 32-yard field goal attempt. An incompletion on fourthand- 10 handed the ball to Granite Hills on the Hornets’ 20-yard line with 3:33 to play. Hard running eventually nosed the ball to the one-yard line whereupon Spalding scored his second touchdown of the game.
The clincher occurred when Johnson completed a halfback pass to senior Tristan Diaz on the ensuing two-point conversion for a 12-point lead with just 1:53 left on the clock. Sacks by seniors Wyatt MacLeod and Hunter Hamilton closed the door on the Hornets’ season.
“A lot of teams might have chucked it in (after going down 12 seconds into the game), but we kept things cool because we knew it was going to be a long game,” Benitez said.
“I had to come out and play with heart, get yards after catch,” Smith said. “Just energy …we stayed positive,” Spalding said. “We knew we were going to slip up a bit. But we knew we could come back.”
The Eagles rolled up 500 yards in offense — 309 passing and 191 rushing — in a complete performance. Benitez completed 16 of 25 passes for 309 yards with four touchdowns and one interception while Walker caught seven passes for 189 yards and three scores.
Smith had 71 yards and one TD on three catches. Spalding had 17 carries for 101 yards and the two scores while junior Seth Rodrigues had nine carries for 40 yards and junior Anthony Mattar had five carries for 25 yards. Johnson had two carries for 12 yards.
Diaz had four catches for 39 yards. Junior Eurijah Schutza led the Eagles with 11 tackles while senior Brayden Wells and MacLeod each had 10 stops.
Granite Hills recorded five sacks, including 3.5 by MacLeod and 1.5 by Hamilton. Lincoln rushed for 305 yards, led by Curtis with 159 yards on 18 carries and Robinson with 129 yards on 19 carries. Manna passed for 224 yards — 146 to Bridges. The Hornets totaled 529 offensive yards as the teams combined for 1,024 yards in the heavyweight bout.
Granite Hills will host Saturday’s Division 1-A Southern California regional championship against undefeated Oxnard Pacifica (14-0). Kick-off is 7 p.m.
ALSO FAMOUS
El Cajon’s Christian High School won the Division III title with a 28-14 win over top-seeded Central Union. The sixth-seeded Patriots (7- 7) will play at Cerritos Valley Christian (11-3) in Friday’s Division 5-AA regional. Junior quarterback Kaleb Runkle completed 18 of 23 passing attempts for 280 yards and four touchdowns — two to senior Ronnie Scott (four catches, 129 yards) and one each to senior Hank Houston (three catches, 35 yards) and junior Soren Lucey (two catches, 40 yards).
