ORANGE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: PREP EXTRA : Rancho Alamitos, Blanco Roll Over Santiago

Rancho Alamitos Coach Doug Case said his players questioned him this summer for starting 14-year-old Alex Blanco at cornerback.

“They said, ‘Coach, what are you doing? He doesn’t even turn 15 until the fifth game,’ ” Case said. “I told them to wait. He’ll help us when he’s eligible.”

Now Case’s players know what all the fuss was about.

Rancho Alamitos took apart a stunned Santiago team, 38-6, and clinched the Garden Grove League’s last playoff spot behind Blanco’s 175 yards rushing Thursday night at Garden Grove High. Blanco, who also intercepted a pass at cornerback, played more than half the game because starting running back Leo Kosi (122 yards in 20 carries) was nursing a sore calf muscle.

“I had to step it up with Leo hurting,” Blanco said. “The line blocked great and I was ready.”

But for some reason, Santiago was not. The Cavaliers, who needed a victory to secure third place, never had a chance. Rancho Alamitos (4-5-1, 4-1-1) scored two touchdowns within seven minutes and led 28-0 before the Cavaliers (5-5, 3-3) knew what hit them.

Santiago Coach Ben Haley, whose team played second-place Los Amigos tough last week, couldn’t explain the Cavaliers embarrassing showing.

“I’m as disappointed as I can be,” Haley said. “I can’t put my finger on the kind of disappointment I’ve got. I’m kind of numb.”

Blanco scored the Vaqueros’ first touchdown on a 20-yard cut-back run and Kosi scored the next two on runs of one and five yards. Both of Kosi’s scores were set up by Blanco, who ran for 87 yards in the first half in only six carries. Rancho Alamitos moved the ball at will as quarterback John Frank connected on five of eight first-half passes for 129 yards and a touchdown.

Meanwhile, Santiago’s offense was nonexistent. Sophomore quarterback Ben Tran was blitzed all night and he didn’t handle it well. Tran had four passes intercepted and he was sacked five times for losses of 49 yards as Rancho Alamitos came with up to eight rushers at times. The Cavaliers only had one first down in the first half and that came on Tran’s 67-yard touchdown pass to Erik Bautista.

“It has to be something I did,” Haley said. “I’ve never had a team play this bad in the first half before. I can’t blame the kids. Maybe the close loss to Los Amigos took more out of them than I thought.”

The Vaqueros’ only second-half touchdown came on sophomore linebacker David Vickers’ 39-yard interception return of a Tran pass.