3-A QUARTERFINAL : Mira Mesa’s Big Play Beats Chula Vista, Avenges Earlier Loss

The play is called “One-88 down.” This time, 52 seconds into the fourth quarter, Mira Mesa running back Wayne Pittman covered 52 yards with it and scored a touchdown.

After that, all host Chula Vista (10-1-1) could do Friday night in this quarterfinal playoff game was keep telling each other “Talk it up, talk it up.” But from Chula Vista’s standpoint, there wasn’t much to talk about. Mira Mesa (9-3) had this football game well under control. The result was a 27-10 victory and a date next week with the winner of tonight’s Morse-San Dieguito game.

Three minutes before Pittman’s run, Chula Vista had driven 62 yards in six plays and scored its only touchdown of the game on a 36-yard pass play from Derek Chapman to receiver Brandon Gregg. Suddenly, there was life on Chula Vista’s sideline. And then, quick as Pittman could run 52 yards through a big hole in the line, there wasn’t.

This run allowed Mira Mesa Coach Brad Griffith to breathe a little easier.

“It sure made us feel more at ease,” he said. “The guy is a heck of a ballplayer.”

Pittman finished with 90 yards in 10 carries. Chula Vista’s line had been stubborn before he finally broke free.

“I was really just thinking about picking up a few yards, because they had stopped it all night,” he said.

The difference between this game and the team’s first meeting--a 14-0 Chula Vista victory--was that Mira Mesa didn’t allow Chapman and his offense to control the clock. Chapman finished a respectable 16 of 32 for 209 yards, but he spent most of the night throwing with hands in his face.

“When we played them last time we didn’t have any film on them,” Griffith said. “We just didn’t really know what they did in certain situations.”

Chula Vista stumbled through the first half, scoring its only points on a 22-yard field goal by Art Castro. Even that was a compromise, though, because Chula Vista had taken over at the Mira Mesa four following defensive back Fred Tayco’s recovery of Mira Mesa quarterback J.J. Rowlett’s fumble.

Other than that, Chula Vista’s half consisted of two things. It watched as Mira Mesa put together two touchdown drives of 27 and 63 yards. It stopped as Mira Mesa’s defense stuffed Chapman every time he had opportunity to get his team back in the game.

Rowlett scored on a one-yard keeper to open the scoring with 9:13 remaining in the first quarter and give Mira Mesa a 7-0 lead. The Marauders had taken over at the Chula Vista 27 after a Chapman pass glanced off the fingers of Hicks and into the hands of linebacker Dan Brislin.

Later in the quarter, Mira Mesa increased its lead to 14-0 when running back Don Elder (21 carries, 76 yards) went three yards over the right side.