Los Amigos football drops CIF playoff opener to Arrowhead Christian

Los Amigos couldn’t escape the hole it dropped into at the start of its first CIF Southern Section football playoff game in six years, wrapping a campaign with much to celebrate in bitter disappointment.

Redlands Arrowhead Christian was faster, stronger and more efficient, and the Lobos’ miscues proved costly Friday night in a 23-12 defeat at Garden Grove High School to open the Division 13 postseason.

Los Amigos (8-3), ranked No. 10 in the division, claimed a share of the Garden Grove League title and returned to the playoffs with their first winning record since 2016, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Eagles’ big plays.

“Yes, it was a good year, but we don’t want to take no ‘atta boys,’ ” Los Amigos coach Romel Guess said. “We came in and our goal was to win a CIF title, and we fell short. As great as it was to win league, our goal wasn’t just to win a league title. Our goal was to come in and make a run, and we fell short, and we’re going to make sure that motivates us going forward.”

And so it is Arrowhead Christian (6-5) that moves on to a quarterfinal date at home next weekend against fourth-seeded Santa Paula (7-4), a 62-55 winner over El Monte.

The Eagles went ahead on the game’s first drive, with Logan Stratton bulling 2 yards for the score three plays after Mason Lackey rumbled 63 yards off left tackle to the Los Amigos 12. Arrowhead Christian went up 16-0 after Lackey closed a short drive with a 14-yard touchdown run not quite two minutes into the second quarter.

Los Amigos, hampered by illness that kept most of the starters out of practice half the week, struggled to move the ball against a swarming defense that limited it to 13 rushing yards and sacked Navarro five times, and when its first real chance arrived, it stumbled.

Junior Pedro Hernandez returned an interception 73 yards to the Arrowhead Christian 4 with 34 seconds to go in the first half, but he got only to the 1-yard line on two carries, and Navarro fumbled as he tried to stretch into the end zone as the clock expired.

“It’s those little things,” Guess said. “You’ve got to have the hunger and the fight and the determination and all the things that we talk about, but it’s football. Sometimes things don’t bounce your way. We left some plays on the field that we wish we could have back and that I believe would change the outcome of this game.”

Lackey ran for 116 yards on 16 carries to go over 1,000 for the season, and freshman receiver Sebastian Carrillo had 119 of the Eagles’ 121 passing yards on just three catches, the biggest a 64-yard sprint down the left sideline for a 23-6 lead a minute after Los Amigos got its first points.

The Lobos, limited to just two first-half first downs, marched 80 yards on 16 plays on a drive that lasted more than 10 minutes to start the second half. Most of the yardage came on a 46-yard Navarro-to-Hernandez screen pass into Arrowhead Christian territory. Navarro found junior Miguel Radilla in the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown, and the two-point-conversion try failed.

Los Amigos pulled within 11 points midway through the fourth quarter, on a 26-yard Radilla reception 11 plays after Moises Flores collected a fumble at the Los Amigos 33. Navarro completed six of eight passes on the drive — including a 20-yard throw to Radilla across midfield and a 12-yard toss to sophomore Adrian Ramirez at the 30 on fourth-and-10 — and finished 20 of 28 for 206 yards.

Radilla made six catches for 82 yards, and Ramirez caught seven passes for 39 yards.

It wasn’t enough.

“The league title, that was step one,” Radilla said. “CIF championship, that was step two, but it didn’t happen. We’re a young team. All we can do is grow now. That’s all we can do.”

CIF Southern Section Division 13 playoffs

Arrowhead Christian 23, Los Amigos 12

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Los Amigos 0 - 0 - 6 - 6 — 12

Arrowhead Christian 9 - 7 - 7 - 0 — 23

FIRST QUARTER

AC — Stratton 2 run (Sechrist kick), 10:33.

AC — Safety (ball snapped out of end zone) 0:40.

SECOND QUARTER

AC — Lackey 14 run (Sechrist kick), 10:09.

THIRD QUARTER

LA — Radilla 4 pass from Navarro (pass failed), 1:43.

AC — Carrillo 64 pass from Thuilliez (Sechrist kick), 0:43.

FOURTH QUARTER

LA — Radilla 26 pass from Navarro (kick failed), 5:34.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

LA — Hernandez, 11-30.

AC — Lackey, 16-126, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

LA — Navarro, 20-28-0, 206, 2 TDs.

AC — Thuilliez, 5-9-2, 121, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

LA — Radilla, 6-82, 2 TDs.

AC — Carrillo, 3-119, 1 TD.

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