As the fog rolled last Friday, the Garden Grove High football team rolled to another victory to clinch a spot in the CIF-SS Southern Division championship game with a resounding 35-21 final triumph over Laguna Beach.
“We got out there and showed everyone that this is where we belong, back in the championship” head coach Willy Puga said after giving his team an inspiring post-game speech.
At first, the game seemed like it was going to be an epic struggle between the third-seeded Argonauts and second-seeded Breakers.
As the fog rolled last Friday, the Garden Grove High football team rolled to another victory to clinch a spot in the CIF-SS Southern Division championship game with a resounding 35-21 final triumph over Laguna Beach.
“We got out there and showed everyone that this is where we belong, back in the championship” head coach Willy Puga said after giving his team an inspiring post-game speech.
At first, the game seemed like it was going to be an epic struggle between the third-seeded Argonauts and second-seeded Breakers.
The Argonauts drew first blood with a one-yard run by senior fullback Maze Masoe and a successful point-after to light up the scoreboard 7-0 with 5:24 remaining in the first quarter. The Breakers responded immediately on their next drive with their own goal-scoring run to even the score at 7-7 at the end of the quarter.
The second quarter began much like the first, with each side exchanging blows, including a 58-yard run by Argonauts senior running back CJ Del Real to set up his own short run into the end zone, bringing the score to 14-7 after the good PAT.
The Breakers responded with a 57-yard catch by Robert Clemens that resulted in a 14-14 tie with 9:38 remaining in the half.
The Argonauts then rallied for two more scores led by junior quarterback Angel Martinez’s passing to gain several key first downs in row as well as an excellent catch by sophomoreAusten Christian to put the Argonauts up 28-14 at halftime.
The second half commenced with a third-quarter stalemate between the two teams as fatigue seemed to set in. The third quarter was riddled with incomplete passes on both sides and penalties that ground the game to a halt.
At the end of the quarter the score remained 28-14.
The fourth quarter saw an increase in energy; the stalemate was broken by a 25-yard touchdown run by sophomoreAusten Christian to put the Argonauts up 35-14 with little time left for a Laguna Beach rally.
The Breakers valiantly tried to mount a comeback with a last-minute touchdown pass to bring the score to 35-21. A successful onside kick gave them the ball back at the two-minute warning. However, the Argonauts’ defense powered through and stopped key players of the Breakers from reaching the goal line.
This is the third time in the past four seasons that Garden Grove High has reached the semifinals, and the win gets them back to the CIF championship that has eluded them since their win in 2010.
“That wasn’t us back then,” Puga said of some of the past, title-less seasons. “We weren’t healthy. We are going to get healthy and practice hard. As a team we have to show up and execute against Corona since they have a similar balanced offense to us.”
The championship game between Garden Grove High and Corona High School is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Angel Stadium.
