Quartz Hill Clinches a Tie for Title

On a brisk Friday night at Palmdale High, Quartz Hill smelled a Golden League title.

And Palmdale was the worse for it.

Quartz Hill scored 35 second-half points in annihilating Palmdale, 49-7. The win gave the Rebels a share of the league title and also status as the league’s No. 1 representative for the playoffs.

Palmdale, as it turned out, was just getting in the way. Before garbage time in the final minutes, the Falcons had posted just one first down, and that came on Anthony Ortega’s 63-yard touchdown run, the game’s first score.

After that, the deluge.

Quartz Hill (7-2, 4-0 in league play) scored on a 14-yard pass from Jake Haro (four of 10 passes, 123 yards, two touchdowns) to Rob Keller with seven seconds to play in the half. That gave Quartz Hill a 14-7 lead and the necessary emotion to dust Palmdale (3-6, 2-2) in the second half.

“It really hurt them when we scored right before the half,” Quartz Hill Coach John Albee said. “That gave us a lot of emotion in our locker room.”

Haro opened the second-half scoring with a 48-yard pass to David Nelson, who was so wide open it appeared that he had jumped off the sideline and joined the game somewhere down the field. Palmdale never recovered.

Quartz Hill’s Erik Thomas joined in the fun, scoring three second-half touchdowns and finishing the night with a game-high 147 yards rushing in 20 carries.

Nelson rushed for 79 yards as the Rebels piled up 440 yards total.

Excluding Ortega’s 63-yard run, Palmdale gained just 37 yards.

“I think after the first touchdown of the second half they weren’t the same football team,” Albee said.

Which was surprising, considering the emotion that Palmdale brought into the game. After Ortega’s run, Coach Kent Bothwell pumped his fists in the air as he ran onto the field.

But Quartz Hill struck back after a key interception by Selves Smith at the Palmdale 20-yard line. Three plays later, Haro stole in from the one. But the kick failed and Palmdale stayed in front, 7-6.

Palmdale could muster little more against a Quartz Hill defense that has been among the area’s best all season.

This is the first Golden League championship for Quartz Hill since the school shared a title in 1981. What remains is a game with Antelope Valley for the Rebels to finish with a spotless league mark. Nevertheless, they will be the league’s top-seeded team.

Meaning?

“You think this was cold?” Albee said, referring to temperatures in the low-40s. “Wait till two weeks from now, when it drops to about 30 degrees. That’s why I want that CIF game up here in two weeks.”