Pacifica Finds Way to Get Past Rancho Alamitos in Victory

It took 13 weeks, but Pacifica finally showed why it was picked to win the Garden Grove League.

Pacifica ended the regular season as the league’s fourth-place team and entered the Southern Section Division VIII playoffs as a wild-card team. Saturday night, the Mariners defeated Garden Grove League champion Rancho Alamitos, 21-6, and are on their way to the section finals for the first time since 1978.

In upsetting third-seeded Rancho Alamitos (12-1), Pacifica (10-3) knocked off its second seeded team and its second unbeaten team. The Mariners, who upset second-seeded and undefeated Laguna Hills in the first round, will go after undefeated and top-seeded Aliso Niguel in Friday’s Division VIII title game.

“I never would have dreamed we’d enter the playoffs as a wild card,” Pacifica Coach Bill Craven said. “The wild card gets a tough road.”

Rancho Alamitos had the county’s leading rusher, Leo Kosi, and he lived up to his billing by rushing for 152 yards against an eight-man line. But Pacifica had the better passing game, the better special teams, the better defense and its running game wasn’t shabby either as halfback Paul Toepel rushed for 101 yards in 22 carries.

“Kosi’s the man,” Pacifica fullback Jeff Burt said. “Without him, they wouldn’t even be here right now.”

Without Kosi Saturday night, Rancho Alamitos would have had minus 18 yards of offense. Rancho Alamitos quarterback Taylor Yandell completed only two of 11 passes for 20 yards and he was sacked six times for losses of 42 yards. But Yandell had little help. Eight of his passes were dropped and many of them could have gone for long gains.

“I thought we passed the ball fine, we just didn’t catch it,” Rancho Alamitos Coach Doug Case said. “If we could have completed a couple passes early, it might have loosened things up for Leo.”

Kosi gained 152 yards in 30 attempts but he didn’t have a run longer than 13 yards.

“All week we talked about tackling around the numbers,” Pacifica Coach Bill Craven said. “You tackle him around his legs and he’s going to break by you.”

Kosi scored the game’s first touchdown on a one-yard run as Rancho Alamitos capitalized on a fumbled handoff between Pacifica quarterback J.D. Stern and Toepel on Pacifica’s 18-yard line. But Pacifica scored twice in the second quarter for a 14-6 halftime lead.

The Mariners took a 7-6 lead when they converted a fourth and one at Rancho Alamitos’ 24 with a play-action pass play from quarterback J.D. Stern to an open Casey Huffmire. They scored just before the half after Rowland Hajnal fell on a bad pitch from Yandell to Kosi at Rancho Alamitos’ 15. Two plays later, Geoff Gilpin, a 6-foot-3 receiver, out-jumped 5-8 defensive back Gil Lopez in the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown catch.

Rancho Alamitos appeared to take the second-half momentum when defensive back Nam Nguyen intercepted an underthrown half-back option pass from Burt. But Hajnal gave Pacifica back the momentum by blocking a Eric Camarillo punt and falling on the ball at Rancho Alamitos’ 12.

Burt scored two plays later from two yards to give Pacifica a 21-6 lead.

“I don’t know if they were nervous for the game, but we made too many mistakes to win a CIF playoff game,” Case said.