Paramount’s Big Pass Plays Topple El Toro : Division II: Pirates hold Chargers to 27 yards rushing to advance to title game against Capistrano Valley.

Paramount High School, looking like the best football team in the Southern Section, advanced to its third championship game in the past three years with a 19-8 victory over El Toro Saturday night at Mission Viejo High.

Paramount’s semifinal victory over El Toro extended its winning streak to 21 games over two seasons and moved the Pirates (13-0) in the Division II championship game next Saturday against Capistrano Valley (11-2).

The game will be a rematch of last year’s Division III semifinal that Paramount won, 26-25, in overtime. The site of the game will be announced at the Southern Section office today.

El Toro’s defense shut down the Pirates’ running game, but quarterback Steve Lopez threw two touchdown passes to wide receiver Carl Henderson. Paramount tailback Leon Neal, who averages 9.7 yards per carry, gained only 54 yards in 18 carries and teammate Demondre White added 58 yards in 10 carries.

But Neal found a way to hurt El Toro, intercepting quarterback Rob Johnson’s pass at the El Toro 31 and returning for a touchdown with 28 seconds remaining to play.

“We gave up what we didn’t want to give up: two long bombs,” El Toro Coach Bob Johnson said. “I thought our run defense did a great job containing Neal, but those two touchdown passes killed us.”

El Toro (11-2) had the momentum in the second half after opening the third quarter with its only scoring drive of night. Johnson completed a 50-yard pass to wide receiver Wade Jackson for a touchdown. On the ensuing conversion, fullback Jason Rojas caught a shovel pass from Darren Doalson to give the Chargers an 8-7 lead.

El Toro appeared to be heading for another touchdown after defensive tackle Jeremy Hogue striped Lopez of the ball at Paramount’s 42 and ran 12 yards to give the Chargers a first down at Paramount’s 30-yard line.

But two dropped passes ended the threat and Paramount regained control and the lead, 13-8, when Lopez threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Henderson with 6:27 remaining.

“We were fortunate to get some big plays,” Paramount Coach Ken Sutch said. “They came up and got some momentum going by throwing the ball while we stood and watched.

“We couldn’t run the ball against them, so we had to pop those two (touchdown) plays.”

Johnson completed 13 of 24 pass attempts for 185 yards and a touchdown. He finished the season with 2,781 yards passing and 29 touchdowns. But three critical dropped passes against Paramount denied El Toro the chance to play in a title game for the second straight year.

“Yeah, those dropped passes really hurt,” Johnson said. “I thought we might have been able to score two more touchdowns in the second half if we could have caught the ball.”

Paramount’s defense, led by linebacker Sam Santana and tackle Mark Manu, held El Toro to 27 yards rushing.

Santana set up the only score of the first half by intercepting Johnson’s pass intended for tight end David Canfield at El Toro’s 30-yard line.

Three plays later, Henderson beat El Toro defender Jason Bailey at the 11-yard line and then scored on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Lopez. Alfonso Bigelow’s kick gave Paramount a 7-0 lead with 19 seconds remaining.