by Kyle Englehart for 619Sports.net
The Titans of Eastlake battled the Escondido Cougars in a heated CIF semifinal match-up Friday night in Chula Vista. Standing in each other’s path towards a CIF championship appearance, the two teams fought to for a chance to play at the “Q.”
The ball found its way into Tony Jefferson’s hands most of the night and the Eastlake Titans (10-0-2) defeated the Cougars of Escondido (8-3-1) 35-14. The win sends the Titans to the D-1 final against Vista under the bright lights of Qualcomm Stadium.
Jefferson (23 carries, 217 yards) continued upon his fantastic 2009 campaign scoring three touchdowns on offense and making big plays on the defense; including a spectacular leaping interception in the end-zone.
Yet it was the Titans that got off to an extremely slow start. The team found their 1st first-down with 1:02 left in the first quarter, and trailed Escondido with under a minute left in the first half.
Escondido’s Ricky Seale, who has more touchdowns this season (35) than the Cougars had passing yards tonight (21), was not a factor in the game. Seale had 12 first-half carries for 42 yards. On the final play of the half, he was tackled out of bounds and never returned to the game. Seale injured his left knee and was on crutches after the game.
“We knew Ricky Seale was the main factor of this game,” said Jefferson post-game. “In the second half he didn’t come back in and we took full advantage of it.”
Without the running threat of Seale, Escondido was forced to throw the ball in the 2nd half. Two quick interceptions in the 3rd quarter resulted in Jefferson TD runs and the Titans would never look back.
A 69 yard TD run by RB Daniel Diaz made the score 28-7 in the final quarter and a stingy defense and clock munching running attack finished the game out with no difficulties.
“We’ve been in some close games they just keep on fighting, there is absolutely no give-up in them,” said Titan head coach John McFadden
The victory at Stan Canaris Stadium was the last of Tony Jefferson and the Eastlake seniors’ high school careers. Jefferson, who is graduating early and starting college this spring, is still deciding upon USC or Oklahoma.
“This is a very emotional and fun time for me,” said Jefferson. “I’m having a lot of fun right now.”
The excitement will only continue as Eastlake travels to Qualcomm Stadium next Friday, December 11. There they will face the Panthers from Vista High School (10-2) for the Division 1 CIF Championship.
Vista comes into the bout scorching after upsetting top ranked La Costa Canyon. The Panthers demolished the Mavericks 47-7 on LCC’s home turf.
But don’t overlook the Titans. They are riding a ten game winning streak and are scoring 38.7 points per game during that time, while allowing only 9.2.
–Courtesy 619Sports.net
