HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Chula Vista Topples Sweetwater to Earn Third Consecutive Metro Title

All season long, the student bodies at Chula Vista and Sweetwater high schools viewed the season finale as The Game in the Metro Conference. They figured--just like old times--the county’s longest continuous rivalry (43 years) to decide the league race would be a doozy.

They were right . . . until the final 24 minutes or so. Then it was all Chula Vista.

The Spartans won their third consecutive Metro championship by beating Sweetwater, 28-6, in front of about 4,000 at Sweetwater. Chula Vista, ranked sixth in the county, will head to the playoffs 8-2, 7-0. Sweetwater, ranked seventh, is 7-3, 6-2. The Red Devils, who slipped to third behind Southwest (8-2, 6-1), should make the playoffs as an at-large team.

Sweetwater (averaging 29.8 points per game) and Chula Vista (27) came into the game ranked fourth and eighth in the county, respectively, in scoring offense, but it took 23:55 for either team to score.

With five seconds left in the first half, Neviett Richardson (12 carries, 60 yards) scampered in from the five-yard line for a 7-0 Spartan lead. Using the same play--an off-tackle blast Chula Vista calls “56 power”--Richardson ran for 17 yards on the previous play. A few seconds before that Chula Vista faced a fourth and 10 at the 32 with 53 seconds left, but Sweetwater called a timeout. After an offsides penalty, quarterback Brandon Gregg (five carries, 72 yards) ran 10 yards on an option keeper.

To begin the second half, Chula Vista’s Winfield Scott and LeMar Bailey teamed for a 49-yard kickoff return on a reverse. Steve Gomez, who rushed for 118 yards to give him a league-leading 1,119, then carried five, 10 and 30 yards for a touchdown down the right sideline, and the rout was on.