There’s No Victory in Tie for San Clemente : Preps: Tritons, who once celebrated anything other than a defeat, aren’t satisfied after tying Capistrano Valley, 14-14.

In years past, San Clemente would have been happy to take home a tie against Capistrano Valley. The Tritons would have torn down the goal posts and taken them home.

But this season, the 14-14 tie at Capistrano Valley was like kissing a playoff spot goodby. Or so it may turn out.

The Tritons (4-4-1, 2-1-1), South Coast League whipping boys for more than a decade, continued their resurgence against the Cougars. They got to the edge, but could not hold on.

Jeff Cellini kicked a 28-yard field goal with 33 seconds left to salvage the tie for the Cougars (5-3-1, 2-1-1). When it sailed through the uprights, the league race was up in the air.

“I have no idea how this is going to play out,” Capistrano Valley Coach Eric Patton said. “I’ll let you guys worry about that.”

OK, the tie left San Clemente and Capistrano Valley tied for third, one-half game behind Mater Dei and Mission Viejo.

San Clemente plays Mater Dei next week, while Capistrano Valley plays Mission Viejo. Got it?

“It’s going to be confusing,” San Clemente Coach Mark McElroy said.

It all could have been avoided had the Tritons held on in the final 2 minutes 52 seconds.

The Cougars, who had won 13 consecutive games from the Tritons, trailed, 14-11, when they took over on the San Clemente 47.

They moved the ball to the eight-yard line, mostly through the work of Dan Geiss. He gained 23 yards on the drive, but lost four on a key third-down play. Cellini then kicked the field goal.

Geiss was the Capistrano Valley offense all evening. He finished with with 162 yards rushing and caught five passes for 72 yards.

That accounted for 234 of the Cougars’ 290 yards.

But he could only get them close through much of the game and the Cougars often had to settle for field-goal attempts. Cellini made one from 35 yards in the first quarter and missed one from 37 in the third quarter. The Cougars also botched a fake field goal attempt in the third quarter.

San Clemente was having similar problems, but only because of the effort of Cougar defensive back Paul Weinrauch.

Twice in the first half, the Tritons got inside the Cougar 20. Both times, Weinrauch tipped away third-down passes in the end zone.

All that San Clemente got from the two possessions was a 37-yard field goal by Mario Garcia.

“We moved the ball, but then we seemed to sputter every time we got close,” McElroy said.

Both teams made costly mistakes.

The Cougars’ P.J. Deschamps dropped a punt just before halftime to set up a 43-yard field goal by Garcia.

The Tritons then gave up a safety on a bad snap on a punt.

Things finally loosened up in the fourth quarter. Slashing runs by Geiss got the Cougars to the 23, where Sam Gaines lobbed a touchdown pass to Blake Spence for an 11-6 lead.

The Tritons came right back, scoring on a hook-and-lateral play. Receiver Josiah Damery caught a nine-yard pass, then pitched to Allen Vaughan, who went 26 yards for the touchdown.

Vaughan ran over a two-point conversion to give the Tritons a 14-11 lead with 5:56 left.