Football: It’s clash of Titans (and Jackrabbits) in Pac-5 championship
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Long Beach Poly Coach Raul Lara, on hand to watch Tesoro dismantle Orange Lutheran, 42-14, in a Pac-5 Division semifinal Saturday night at Santa Ana Stadium, told several of his Titans counterparts, ‘We’ve got our hands full with you guys’ as the coaches exchanged game DVDs afterward.
‘We’ve got our hands full,’ a Titans coach responded.
Turns out they’re both right.
Top-seeded Long Beach Poly is the defending champion with gobs of tradition and Tesoro is the undefeated upstart looking for a Cinderella finish to an already storybook season.
It’s been quite a run of firsts this season for Tesoro, only two years removed from a 1-9 finish. The Titans have notched their first undefeated regular season and first three Pac-5 playoff victories.
They’ll go for a fourth Saturday against the Jackrabbits at Angel Stadium.
‘We’re all pretty pumped to play Long Beach Poly,’ said Tesoro receiver Preston King, who threw a touchdown pass in the second quarter on a trick play. ‘A lot of teams are scared to play them but we’re not.’
Tesoro Coach Brian Barnes could have begun his preparations for the championship game at halftime after the third-seeded Titans (13-0) took a 28-0 lead by scoring touchdowns on their first four possessions and holding Lutheran (10-3) to 35 yards of total offense in the first half.
Five players scored touchdowns for the Titans, who utilized some trickery early in the second quarter when King took a pitch from quarterback Robbie Picazo and passed to Brett Gudim for a four-yard touchdown to give Tesoro a 21-0 lead.
Gudim also hauled in a tipped pass at the Lutheran 15-yard line late in the third quarter and ran into the end zone to complete a 61-yard touchdown.
‘It took a team effort,’ King said. ‘I knew if we played a perfect game and they played a perfect game, we’d win.’
Lutheran was hardly perfect. Scotty Williams had 13 catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns for the Lancers, who didn’t make it into Tesoro territory until Williams returned a punt to the Titans’ 44-yard line early in the third quarter.
Tesoro’s defense sacked quarterback Bobby Wheatley four times.
--Ben Bolch