SAN CLEMENTE – Los Alamitos football coach Ray Fenton had seen his team make a few comebacks this season.
None of them was as important or as impressive as what happened Saturday night.
Los Alamitos fell behind quickly by two touchdowns before rallying for a 33-20 win over San Clemente in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 championship game at San Clemente High.
The Griffins fell behind 17-3. They outscored San Clemente 30-3 from there.
“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve come back,” Fenton said. “That’s just how this season has been. Pretty magical for our guys.”
It is the sixth CIF-SS football championship for Los Alamitos and the school’s first since 2002.
Los Alamitos (12-2) will play next week in the CIF Southern California Regional. The pairings and schedule for the regional will be announced Sunday.
The CIF Southern California and CIF Northern California regional winners meet in the CIF State championships on Dec. 12 and 13.
San Clemente finished at 9-5.
Saturday’s game was a rematch of an Alpha League game last month that San Clemente won 28-9.
In Saturday’s game, Los Alamitos all-purpose senior Lenny Ibarra rushed for 95 yards, had three receptions for 43 yards and had an interception. Ibarra, who committed to Army, also handled punting duties and he had a 65-yard punt in the second half.
“It means so much,” Ibarra said of the championship game victory. “All the work we put in the whole school year. Just to be able to get this moment with this group of guys is amazing.”
Griffins junior running back Kamden Tillis rushed for 134 yards on 16 carries including touchdown runs of 31 and 22 yards. Los Alamitos senior tight end Beckham Hofland, who is committed to Boise State, had five receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown and kicked two field goals.
The Los Alamitos defense had six sacks, including two by Cornell-committed senior defensive end Jackson Renger.
After trailing 17-3 the Griffins powered their way back into the game to make it 17-17 at halftime.
San Clemente took a 20-17 lead early in the third quarter on a 35-yard field goal by Ethan Miller.
Los Alamitos then scored a touchdown and took its first lead in a bizarre way. With the Griffins at the San Clemente 12, tight end Beckham Hofland pulled in a shovel pass in the backfield. After Hofland crossed the line of scrimmage he was hit, the ball popped loose and Griffins offensive lineman Luke Wehner picked it up and ran with it 12 yards for the touchdown and a 24-20 lead.
Griffins lineman Hunter Eligon recovered a fumble at the San Clemente 35 and a few plays later Tillis scored on a 22-yard run. The point-after kick was off target, keeping the Los Alamitos lead to 30-20.
Ibarra’s interception led to Hofland’s second field goal, this one of 21 yards, to make it 33-20 with 4:46 to play.
Los Alamitos’ Koa Marasco later sealed the win with an interception.
Marasco after the game was trying to figure out what he had just experienced.
“I’m shocked,” Marasco said. “To do this with my family, with my brothers means the world to me. That’s all I wanted for Christmas, was to win this with my family and my brothers.”
With the way San Clemente played in the first half, the game looked like a potential Tritons rout. They had a 17-3 lead in the second quarter.
San Clemente scored on its first possession. Preston Beck threw 25-yard completions to Jaxson Rex and Shane Kiley to propel the Tritons downfield. Colin Granite scored on a 7-yard run up the middle for a 7-0 lead.
The Griffins drove deep into San Clemente territory on their ensuing possession. Rex caused a fumble that the Tritons recovered at their 5-yard line.
Rex stopped the next Los Alamitos possession, too, with an interception that he made at the Griffins 30-yard line and returned to their 7-yard line. San Clemente converted that into a 20-yard field goal by Ethan Miller to make it 10-0.
Los Alamitos got a field goal, a 29-yard kick by Hofland, to reduce the San Clemente lead to 10-3.
A Beck-to-Rex completion of 20 yards led led to a 2-yard touchdown run by Granite to push the Tritons lead to 17-3.
Los Alamitos scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes – a 31-yard run down the right sideline by Tillis and, with 39 seconds to go, a 24-yard leaping catch by Hofland in the middle of the end zone for a 17-17 tie. That would be the halftime score.
That gave the Griffins the momentum that they would build on in the second half.
“I knew our team would keep pushing,” Marasco said. “We battled through adversity after adversity all year. I’m grateful that we pushed through and that we were able to go home with a ‘W.’”