HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : 2nd-Half Dominance Endures for Quartz Hill

After the game, the Quartz Hill High pep band roamed the field at Orange Coast College, playing hip tune after hip tune while an elderly fan stood amid the crowd on the field waving a giant Confederate flag. Around the field, Quartz Hill players and fans spilled in every direction, chanting, “Reeeebels, Reeeebels.”

How appropriate. Quartz Hill dominated the field of play all night long, so why not let it continue after the game?

This Division I semifinal between Quartz Hill and Mater Dei before a standing-room-only crowd of 8,000 was no contest. The Rebels flogged Mater Dei, 37-7, to advance to next Friday’s Division I final at Anaheim Stadium against the winner of tonight’s Loyola-Canyon game.

Once again, it was a game decided by a late Quartz Hill performance. The Rebels (11-2) outscored Mater Dei (7-6), 20-0, in the final two quarters to continue an extraordinary second-half dominance. In Quartz Hill’s past five games the Rebels have outscored their opponents in the second half, 122-0.

“Everybody knows the second half is our half,” junior tailback Erik Thomas said. “We had to keep up our tradition.”

Friday night, it was Thomas who held his end up. He broke two 49-yard touchdown runs in the third quarter and wound up with a game-high 178 yards (148 in the second half) in just 18 carries.

Thomas’ performance exemplified Quartz Hill’s ground dominance in the second half when the Rebels rushed for 272 yards while attempting just one pass.

“The lines dominated both sides of the ball tonight,” Quartz Hill Coach John Albee said. “When Erik breaks runs like that, it gets the line jacked up to block even better.”

While Mater Dei’s Derek Sparks gained 157 yards in 24 carries, most of the yardage came well after the outcome was decided. Quarterback Billy Blanton threw for 179 yards but also threw three interceptions to halt nearly every Mater Dei drive.

His counterpart, Rebel junior Jake Haro, was deadly efficient as he has been all year. Haro, with a penchant for the big play, completed four of six passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns, including one of 24 yards to Rob Keller on the first half’s final play that extended a Quartz Hill lead to 17-7 and sealed momentum on the Rebel sideline.

“That must have affected them,” Albee said. “And then Erik’s runs really hurt them. . . . we’ve just exploded in the second half.”

An explosion heard from Lancaster to Anaheim. The Rebels’ appearance in the championship game is the first in school history and speaks well of the Golden League, in just its first year of Division I competition.

“We feel like we can blow anybody out,” tailback David Nelson said after the game. “We don’t feel like anybody can play with us in the second half.”

A point hard to argue.