2-A/1-A FOOTBALL PLAYOFF ROUNDUP : Mission Bay Capitalizes on Return to Postseason by Upsetting Oceanside

Fifteen years is a long time. The Mission Bay High football team showed just how long Friday night, taking out more than a decade of frustration on bigger and stronger Oceanside by pounding out a 27-14 victory at Balboa Stadium.

Making their first postseason appearance since 1974, Mission Bay advanced to the quarterfinals of the San Diego Section 2-A playoffs while improving its record to 9-2--more victories than in its previous three seasons combined. Oceanside, which advanced to the semifinals last year, finished at 5-5.

Mission Bay will meet Ramona in the quarterfinals next Saturday.

The winning Bucs stunned the Pirates by scoring three touchdowns over a span of 6:32 in the second quarter, then kept their cool while Oceanside scored twice in two minutes in the final period to pull to with a touchdown at 21-14 with 9:03 remaining.

But then two minutes later, Mission Bay senior Pat Betancourt sprinted around right end and a couple of tacklers for a nine-yard touchdown run to cinch it. It was Betancourt’s third score--in the second period he caught a 28-yard scoring pass from Andy Guyader for the game’s first touchdown, then scored on a 27-yard run around right end just over six minutes later to make it, 21-0.

The game ended amid a thickening fog, with both teams in a daze.

“In the end we were getting flustered and all confused,” Betancourt said. “But somehow we held on. We figured, hey, the season is over, let’s just have fun.”

Oceanside’s Terry Vaughn, the county’s leading rusher who was held to just 53 yards--a bit below his 166.2 yards-per-game average--didn’t think it was much fun.

“It was hard for me to run with eight guys in stacking up the middle all the time,” Vaughn said. “But I swear I kept thinking, we were going to win this thing, I really did. I still think we’re the hardest hitting team around.”

The problem was, after falling behind so quickly, the frustrated Pirates began hitting late, and illegally. For practical purposes, the game ended with 5:40 remaining when, at the start of a drive while trailing, 27-14, they were hit with 25 yards worth of penalties on one play, for holding and unsportsmanlike conduct. That moved them from their 48-yard line back to their 23. They never got much closer.

“I could tell that they were frustrated when they started punching us,” Betancourt said. “I think it was because we shocked them by scoring so fast in the first half. It happened in, like, two seconds.”

It was nearly that fast. After Betancourt caught his touchdown pass--on a nifty fourth-and eight play--Mission Bay senior linebacker Demond Mitchell jolted the ball loose from Aaron Staack on the ensuing kickoff. The fumble was recovered by Buc lineman Gary Ellis, who ran 13 yards for the touchdown. Minutes later, Betancourt scored again, and the upset was working.