Bloomington Wins VII Title With Fourth-Quarter Rally

Bloomington High, as it has done so often in the past three seasons, let its double-wing offense shoulder the burden.

Trailing San Bernardino Pacific by 15 points in the fourth quarter, Bloomington rallied for 20 fourth-quarter points to defeat Pacific, 40-35, Saturday night in the Southern Section Division VII football championship before an estimated 10,000 at the University of Redlands.

Bloomington wingback Cedric Mullins’ eight-yard touchdown run--his fourth score on the night--with 2:53 remaining in the game capped the rally and gave the Bruins (13-1) their second division title in three years.

“We weren’t going to give up just because we were down by two touchdowns,” Mullins said. “With our offense, we’ll always believe we had a chance.”

Montise Mallory set up the winning drive for Bloomington when he intercepted a pass from Pirate backup quarterback Rah-Mann Allen.

Pacific (11-2-1) received an outstanding performance from quarterback Ryan Nece. Nece completed all four of his passes for 118 yards and two touchdown passes to Robert Burries and also ran for an 85-yard touchdown, which gave the Pirates a 28-20 lead in the third quarter.

Bloomington trailed, 35-20, one play into the fourth quarter after Nece connected with Burries on a 40-yard touchdown pass.

Bloomington, which set a national high school scoring record two years ago and gained more than 4,000 yards rushing while scoring more than 600 points this year, dominated the fourth quarter.

Mullins, wingback David Smith and fullback John Luna each rushed for more than 100 yards.

The Bruins cut the deficit to 35-26 when Mullins caught a 52-yard scoring pass from Kahil Hassan.

Smith scored on a 32-yard run with 7:06 remaining in the game and Luna’s two-point conversion run brought Bloomington within one, 35-34.

Two big plays helped Pacific to a 21-20 lead at halftime. Joseph Weber found room down the right sideline for a 67-yard touchdown run and Nece later hooked up with Burries on a 45-yard scoring pass and a 21-14 advantage.

Bloomington countered with two first-half touchdown runs and 97 yards rushing from Mullins and 88 yards from Smith.