Rancho Alamitos Cruises Toward Showdown

Rancho Alamitos scored the first 42 points in Friday’s game and defeated Bolsa Grande, 42-7, putting the Vaqueros exactly where Coach Mike Enright hoped they would be heading into the final week of the regular season.

“One of things that I wanted coming into this season is for this team to be playing a big game at the end of the season,” Enright said. “That’s exactly where we are--we’ve got a playoff game next week.”

The playoffs will begin early for the Vaqueros (5-3-1, 3-1-1 in the Garden Grove League), who face Pacifica (5-4, 4-1) next Thursday. Barring a stunning upset elsewhere in the league, the Rancho Alamitos-Pacifica winner will join Garden Grove and Los Amigos in the postseason and the loser will not.

Rancho Alamitos had little trouble with Bolsa Grande. After turning the ball over on downs on their first possession, the Vaqueros scored on their next six drives to build a 42-0 lead. Daniel Green completed 10 of 15 passes for 227 yards and three touchdowns to lead the way. Four of those completions went to Fidel Carrillo, who had five catches for 111 yards and one touchdown, and four to Maurice Garcia, who had 90 receiving yards and a score.

Bolsa Grande scored late in the fourth quarter on a 10-yard run by James Bui with 1 minute 9 seconds left. The Matadors threatened to score again after recovering an onside kick. Rancho Alamitos’ Aris Limjuco intercepted a pass to end the threat.