The Grossmont Conference football standings continue to take shape as league play progresses and, in so doing, the post-season playoff picture continues to come into better focus.
The Grossmont Hills League standings are now down to one undefeated team and two teams with one loss each after No. 5 Granite Hills topped No. 10 Mt. Miguel, 45-30, and Helix bumped Grossmont, 56-26, in key games last Friday. Granite Hills (6-2 overall) entered Thursday’s game at Helix with a 2-0 league record while Mt. Miguel (6-2 overall) drops to 2-1 in league play. Meanwhile, Helix (3-5 overall) improved to 1-1 in league play while Grossmont (4-4 overall) dropped to 1-2. Steele Canyon is 0-2 in league, 4-4 overall.
Like a rock
Granite Hills senior touchdown- maker Max Turner anchored the Eagles’ offense with 27 carries for 271 yards and three touchdowns. The visitors rushed for 298 yards overall en route to compiling 537 all purpose yards in the victory.
Sophomore Zac Benitez passed for 70 yards and two touchdowns — one each to senior Brenden Lewis (three catches, 27 yards) and Turner (two catches, 18 yards).
Turner finished the game with 289 total yards and four touchdowns — three rushing and one receiving.
The win was the 100th in his coaching career for Granite Hills head coach Kellan Cobbs.
“Max Turner was excellent for us on Friday night,” Cobbs said. “Zach Benitez was very efficient in our passing game and had two touchdowns. Parker Vance did an excellent job of limiting their passing game on his side of the field and our kicker, Trent Whillock, made a long field goal and did a good job of keeping the ball away from their return guys.
“We have Helix this week on a short week (Thursday) and it should be a good game. Helix always plays us tough. We can put ourselves in a great position to repeat for the third time straight as league champions.”
Got to keep fingers crossed, though.
The Eagles defense stopped the Matadors three times from the one-yard line with the visitors ahead 24-17 to change momentum in the high impact game.
Junior Jayden Proctor led the defense with 13 tackles while senior Trevor Smith had 12 stops. Both players had one tackle for a loss. The Eagles recorded seven tackles for losses in the game. Senior Gavin Taylor had one sack.
Proctor and senior Jonathan Deleon each made one fumble recovery.
The kicking game paid dividends for the El Cajon team.
Lewis punted four times for 148 yards, including a longest effort of 58 yards. He landed two punts inside the 20-yard line.
Lewis also returned a kickoff 66 yards for a touchdown while junior Kyler Oberg returned a kickoff 24 yards. Smith had two punt returns for 48 yards.
Whillock, a senior, recorded nine kicking points with six successful extra-point conversions and a 44-yard field goal.
Senior Trenton Ingram and sophomore Gage Spalding each had one catch for 17 yards while senior Lathan Fry had one catch for eight yards.
The Eagles recorded six touchdowns in the win — three rushing, two receiving and one on special teams.
The Matadors countered with four touchdown passes from junior quarterback A.J. Stowers, who completed 25 of 33 passes for 293 yards. Junior Parris Vernon had seven catches for 62 yards while junior Brandon Arrington had three catches for 44 yards, including a 31-yard score.
“It was a tough loss to a really good team,” Mt. Miguel coach Verlain Betofe said. “We had our chances to take control of that game but made some costly penalties. Against really good teams like that you can’t make dumb mistakes. We are going to regroup and make a run in the playoffs. I have a feeling we are going to see them again.”
