The 2024 high school football regular season has concluded, three East County league champions have been crowned and the San Diego Section has employed its newest playoff formula to date to determine the teams that will go on to battle for division championships.
The new playoff format does offer a more level playing field though it does include three winless teams (0-10) in the brackets.
The Grossmont Conference has 10 teams moving on to post-season play, keyed by Grossmont Hills League champion Granite Hills, which received the No. 3 seed in the Division I bracket, and league runner-up Mt. Miguel, which received the No. 5 seed in the same 12-team draw. Both league upper dwellers take 8-2 records into the single-elimination playoffs.
Grossmont Valley League champion El Capitan (7-3) received the No. 2 seed in the Division IV field while the Grossmont Foothillers (4-6) were seeded third in the same field.
The Helix Highlanders (4-6) received the No. 3 seed in the Division II bracket while the City League champion Christian Patriots (8-2) are seeded eighth.
Steele Canyon is seeded 11th deep in the Division III bracket as all five Grossmont Hills League teams qualified for the playoffs.
Four of the six teams in the Grossmont Valley League made the playoff cut. There was drama to the end, in fact, as to whether the Monte Vista Monarchs or Valhalla Norsemen would collect the 64th and final playoff berth available this season.
Monte Vista (5-5) won 38-20 to earn the No. 12 seed in the Division V field.
Also on deck for late season drama, the West Hills Wolf Pack upended the host Santana Sultans, 38-20, to capture the teams’ annual Mayor’s Cup rivalry trophy to leap frog over one another into the playoffs. West Hills (5-5) received the No. 6 seed in Division V while Santana (6-4) received the No. 7 seed.
Among East County programs, Valhalla (4-6), Mountain Empire (1-9) and El Cajon Valley (0-10) did not qualify for the playoffs.
Foothills Christian will represent East County as the No. 2 seed in the eight-person playoffs.
Granite Hills (90-46 over Grossmont), El Capitan (64-0 over El Cajon Valley) and Helix (62-20 over Steele Canyon) made major closing statements to regular season play.
Granite Hills and Grossmont combined for a San Diego Section record 136 points with the host Eagles setting a section record for most points scored in a single game with 90.
The teams combined for 20 touchdowns (13 by the Eagles and seven by the Foothillers) and 1,187 total offensive yards (631 by the hosts and 556 by visitors) in the marathon game that featured a whopping 213 plays from scrimmage.
Fans who witnessed the history-making game actually got two games’ worth of plays for the price of one ticket.
Granite Hills head coach Kellan Cobbs said it was the “craziest” game he’d ever coached.
Granite Hills senior Max Turner (three rushing, one receiving) and Grossmont junior Noah Walker (four receiving) led the scoring parade with four touchdowns apiece. Turner rushed 13 times for 164 yards and caught two passes for 13 yards. Walker had 10 catches for 145 yards.
Overall, there were 14 passing touchdowns and six rushing touchdowns in the high-scoring contest.
Granite Hills sophomore signal-caller Zac Benitez completed 28 of 41 passing attempts for 371 yards and eight touchdowns while Foothillers senior quarterback Thomas Donovan completed 28 of 46 attempts for 515 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions. Benitez finished with a 136.3 passing rating.
Granite senior Trenton Ingram caught five passes for 107 yards and three touchdowns while senior teammate Lathan Fry had six catches for 84 yards and two scores. Senior Brenden Lewis (11 catches, 126 yards) and junior Emilio Vera (one catch, eight yards) matched Turner with one receiving TD.
Sophomores Gage Spalding (three carries, 41 yards) and Anthony Mattar (four carries, 36 yards) each scored one rushing touchdown for Granite Hills.
Grossmont senior Parker Vanderbergh had seven catches for 190 yards and one touchdown while senior Amari Riley had five catches for 145 yards and one touchdown. Foothillers junior Damar Smith rushed 23 times for 79 yards and one touchdown.
The 2024 season continues for both teams. Both the Eagles (No. 3 seed in Division I) and Foothillers (No. 3 seed in Division IV) will have byes in the opening round of the playoffs.
Granite Hills finished as last year’s Open Division champion while Grossmont finished runner-up in the Division III championship game.
The 2024 high school season kicked off with Grossmont and Patrick Henry slugging it out in a scoring fest that featured 125 points between the teams in a 77-48 Patrick Henry non-league win.
