Nemeth Runs Away With It as Aliso Niguel Wins Title

The Pacifica Mariners proved, as they have throughout the playoffs, that they were no wild-card team. But even Cinderella wild-card teams run out of miracles when they are faced with the task of tackling Scott Nemeth.

The Mariners played well enough to beat most teams, but they couldn’t stop Nemeth, who ran through the slop of Orange Coast College’s field for 238 yards and three touchdowns to lead Aliso Niguel to a 32-21 victory Friday night in the Southern Section Division VIII championship game in front of about 8,000 fans.

Aliso Niguel’s title march was even more of a miracle than Pacifica’s wild-card run. The Wolverines finished off a perfect 14-0 season in only their third year of varsity football.

Aliso Niguel Coach Joe Wood said his team’s title is not that improbable.

“We took it a day at time,” he said. “This freshman class was as good a freshman group as I’ve seen since I’ve been in coaching. We thought then if they stuck together, you never know what could happen.”

Pacifica Coach Bill Craven said he knew what happened to his team Friday night.

‘They’re a big, physical football team and they just wore us down,” he said. “We’d hit them and they’d just bounce off. Our outside linebackers weigh 190 and [Nemeth] weighs 220. The kid’s like a runaway freight train.”

Nemeth, who carried 20 times, had five runs over 25 yards on his way to a career-high rushing night.

“I dreamed of winning a championship but I wasn’t sure of what role I would play,” Nemeth said. “I just wanted to win a championship.”

Every time Pacifica appeared to be gaining momentum, Nemeth would break the Mariners’ backs with a long touchdown run. In the first half, he broke through the left side of Pacifica’s line for touchdown runs of 55 and 47 yards. On both runs, Nemeth was barely touched.

“He’s a good back, but that was a hell of a line,” Pacifica linebacker Wes Choate said.

Choate was responsible for Pacifica’s first touchdown as he picked up a backward pass from Wes Thomas that was thrown behind Nemeth and ran it 40 yards. Nemeth, thinking Thomas’ lateral was a pass, didn’t go for the ball.

Pacifica took a 13-12 lead into halftime when J.D. Stern hit Paul Tessier with a six-yard touchdown pass.

Thomas hit tight end Cory Chandler on a 11-yard scoring play to give a Aliso Niguel a brief 18-13 lead but Pacifica answered when Stern hit Darrell Miles on a fourth-and-eight scoring play from 24 yards out.

Pacifica’s lead stood for one scrimmage play. After a Pacifica personal foul penalty, Nemeth busted one off tackle from his 49-yard line and ran through a diving Jason Simpson at the 20 to give Aliso Niguel a 25-21 lead with 47 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Mariners failed to move the ball in their first possession of the fourth quarter and it appeared they would get the ball back when they forced the Wolverines into a fourth and 10. But a high snap forced Chandler, Aliso Niguel’s punter, to run with the ball. Two Pacifica players had him trapped, but Chandler broke free and ran for the first down.

Three plays later on third and 18 at Pacifica’s 24, Aliso Niguel sealed it when Thomas hit a wide-open Andrew Mashburn on a post-pattern.

Pacifica, which hadn’t been to a championship game since 1978, finished 10-4.

“We never considered ourselves a wild-card team,” Craven said. “We had championship talent.”

Just not enough of it to stop a runaway train.

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Southern Section Championships

TONIGHT’S GAMES

DIVISION I

* Mater Dei vs. Los Angeles Loyola, 7:40 p.m., Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

DIVISION V

* Santa Margarita vs. Newport Harbor, 7:30 p.m., Cal State Fullerton