Santiago Lights Up Rancho Alamitos, 52-42

The cause of the power outage that plunged the Garden Grove High stadium into darkness for 20 minutes in the second quarter was unknown Friday night. But the prime suspect is obvious: scoreboard overload.

Santiago and Rancho Alamitos shot out the lights to the tune of 94 points and 849 yards as the Cavaliers posted a 52-42 homecoming victory in a freewheeling Garden Grove League game.

“It was a track meet,” Santiago Coach Ben Haley said. “It was whoever had the ball last.”

That turned out to be the Cavaliers (4-3, 1-2 in league), who monopolized the ball for 10 minutes in the fourth quarter and outscored Rancho Alamitos, 13-0, to sustain their Southern Section playoff hopes and all but extinguish those of the Vaqueros (1-6, 0-3).

Santiago quarterback Brian Pilkington completed 16 of 26 passes for 250 yards, with four touchdowns. Rancho Alamitos’ Daniel Green also threw four TD passes and completed 10 of 21 for 239 yards. But he didn’t complete a pass in the second half, and he was intercepted three times, two of which led to Santiago touchdowns.

Bryan Thomas scored three touchdowns for Santiago, on a 45-yard pass and two short runs, and had two interceptions. Maurice Garcia, the county’s leading receiver, had a 74-yard touchdown catch and a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for Rancho Alamitos.

The back-and-forth game turned the Cavaliers’ way when they took a 46-42 lead on Pilkington’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Josue Lara, then recovered an onside kick. Santiago drove 50 yards to the clinching score, Pilkington’s 15-yard pass to Narcisco Garcia with 6:35 to play.