It was a clean sweep for the three East County teams that qualified for last weekend’s San Diego Section football championships at Southwestern College.
- No. 2 El Capitan defeated No. 5 Westview, 17-14, to capture the Division IV title — the school’s first CIF championship since 2014.
- No. 12 Monte Vista proved the ultimate bracket buster with a 38-20 win over No. 2 Bonita Vista in the Division V game as Monarch senior Alex Villanueva set a new section single-season rushing record with 3,006 yards.
- No. 3 Granite Hills scored a rare three-peat with a 42-25 win over No. 1 San Marcos in front of an estimated 5,500 fans to cap the five championship games spread over two days Nov. 29-30.
As a reward, all three East County CIF champions qualified to compete in the Southern California regional playoffs with an opportunity to play for a state title.
El Capitan (10-3) will host Victorville Silverado (9-5) on Friday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Division 5-AA clash while Monte Vista (8-5) will host Pasadena (8-6) at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, in a Division 6-A matchup.
Granite Hills will play at Huntington Beach Edison (10- 4) at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, for the right to advance in the Division 1-A bracket.
The high-flying Eagles, three-time defending Grossmont Hills League champions, carry a six-game winning streak into the regional playoff match.
It will be hard for any team to duplicate what has transpired over the past three seasons for the El Cajon ballclub.
Granite Hills began its three-peat with a 48-12 win over Ramona in the 2022 Division II championship game and followed that up with last year’s meteoric Open Division cliff-hanger win over top-seeded Lincoln.
The Eagles never trailed in Saturday’s marquee clash against San Marcos, leading 21-0 midway through the second quarter before the Palomar champion Knights responded with three unanswered scores of their own to narrow the score to 21-18 early in the third quarter.
The East County kingpins regained the momentum with a pair of touchdowns to up their lead to 35-18.
Senior Max Turner finally put the game away on a breakaway 33-yard touchdown run with 2:13 remaining in regulation after San Marcos had crawled back into the contest at 35-25.
“All three championships are very exciting,” Granite Hills head coach Kellan Cobbs said. “All feel great.”
Though the Eagles did not qualify for this year’s Open Division playoffs, they certainly played like an Open Division caliber team with excellent showings on both offense and defense.
Turner took care of the offense with 242 rushing yards and five touchdowns while his teammates recorded three interceptions (senior Parker Vance, junior Jayden Proctor and senior Kuba Polak), three sacks (two by senior Gavin Taylor and one by senior Jonathan Deleon) and one fumble recovery (Deleon) to stymie the high-powered Knights.
“The offense started fast,” Cobbs noted. “Zac (sophomore quarterback Zachary Benitez) made some great throws to set up a short field. They (the Knights) have a great team and made it interesting. They came back. It was a great team effort for us.
“I’m really proud of all my guys for representing. This is the goal every single year — the San Diego Section. I tell the team anything extra is icing on the cake. Heck of a job.”
Benitez completed nine of 16 passing attempts for 233 yards and one touchdown and no interceptions. San Marcos junior Kreet Makahele was up to the task with 228 passing yards and two scores. But the three picks proved detrimental.
Junior Kyler Oberg keyed the Eagles with two catches for 67 yards, including a surprise 60-yard bomb to set up the game’s opening score. Senior Lathan Fry had four catches for 62 yards. He helped set up another score with a 30-yard catch and run.
Senior Brenden Lewis had two catches for 37 yards, including a 30-yarder to preface a one-yard touchdown by Turner.
Sophomore Gage Spalding shocked the stadium with a 67-yard touchdown catch and run to extend the early lead to 14-0. Spalding also rushed seven times for 23 yards to finish a productive night with 90 all-purpose yards.
But the game revolved around Turner, who carried the ball 32 times.
“It’s fun being out there,” Turner said. “The feeling of it feels so great being with the family and running the ball. My team, I owe it all to them.”
Turner’s season statistics now read 1,928 rushing yards with 29 rushing touchdowns. For his varsity career, he has logged 3,066 rushing yards and 52 total touchdowns (46 rushing, six receiving).
But it almost went for naught.
“Once we got to 21-0, I was hoping we could coast on through,” Fry said. “Then they came back with 18 points and we had to run the ball up the gut and put a few passes on them.”
Senior Brady Pohl was a catalyst for the Knights with 134 yards on kick returns and 67 receiving yards. His weaving 99-yard kickoff return narrowed the score to 21-18 with just 15 seconds off the clock to start the second half.
Vance is up for defensive player of the year. The interception was his ninth of the season, a personal record.
“They had a fumble recovery on the 19 and the 99-yard kick-off return … Our defense held their offense really to 12 points,” Vance said with an air of pride.
Vance has been involved in each three-peat for Granite.
“It’s pretty cool being undefeated in championships,” he said. “I play my heart out every game. I’m not used to losing at Granite Hills.”
“We’re a fast-staring team, not maybe the last two games, but we did it this game,” Benitez said. “Once we were able to punch them in the mouth, we were able to keep going.”
Granite Hills won a state championship two seasons ago. Two more wins and history could repeat again.
The Eagles are keeping their wings crossed.
