Garcia Leads Century to Third Place in Pacific Coast League

Century running back Juan Garcia scored four touchdowns and rushed for 236 yards in the Centurions’ 30-13 Pacific Coast League victory over Laguna Beach Saturday afternoon at Santa Ana Stadium.

Century (7-3, 3-2), which clinched third place in the league, is hoping for a wild-card berth in Division VII when the pairings are announced today.

Garcia, who has rushed for 1,124 yards this season, opened the scoring with a one-yard run in the second quarter.

Laguna Beach (2-8, 0-5) then scored two touchdowns to take a 13-7 lead at halftime. Quarterback Jason Abraham threw touchdown passes of seven and eight yards to Luke Matjas and Chris Faubert.

The Centurions responded with three consecutive touchdowns, all by Garcia, and the defense held the Artists to four second-half first downs. Garcia’s one-yard run made it 14-13 with 3:51 left in the third quarter after Tony Lievanos kicked the extra point. Garcia then caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Karlo Balderrama making it 21-13. He finished the game with two receptions for 45 yards.

“He’s been doing this all season,” Century Coach Bill Brown said. “Since he plays both ways, there’s no telling what he could do if he concentrated on just offense or defense.”

Garcia blocked a punt by Abraham midway through the fourth quarter that resulted in a safety and then added a three-yard run to close the scoring with 5:50 to play.