TUSTIN — For the Beckman football team to defeat Palm Desert in their CIF-SS Division 8 semifinal matchup on Friday, slowing down the Aztecs’ high-powered offense would be key.
The Patriots did just that, shutting out the Aztecs for three quarters before coming away with a 28-14 victory at Tustin High School.
Beckman (10-3) will play Brea Olinda for the Division 8 championship after the Wildcats defeated Irvine, 28-12, in the other semifinal Friday.
“I love coaching this team and I’m incredibly fired up to have another week with these guys and I can’t wait to get to practice,” Beckman coach Marcello Giullano said. “They have put themselves in a position to do something that Beckman hasn’t done before and so I’m happy to be on the journey with them.”
The Patriots forced interceptions on the Aztecs’ first two drives of the game.
Xavier Musselman-Cano came up with the first of two interceptions on Beckman’s 33 on the game’s opening drive and Sawyer Nickelson had an interception on the Beckman 1 on Palm Desert’s next drive.
The Patriots then forced punts on four consecutive Aztecs possessions and blocked a 30-yard field goal attempt on the last play of the first half to preserve a 7-0 lead.
Quarterback Noah Kim connected with Makhi Czaykowski on a 53-yard touchdown to give Beckman a 7-0 lead in the second quarter.
Czaykowski went on to finish with 124 yards rushing and two touchdowns and 66 yards receiving with a touchdown.
Beckman received the second-half kickoff and put together 75-yard, 13-play scoring drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock and wound up being a huge factor in determining the game’s outcome.
The Patriots converted two fourth downs on the drive, the first on a risky fourth-and-1 play from the Beckman 34 when Kim dove over the line to pick up the yard.
The second came on a fourth-and-1 from the Beckman 44 and this time it was Aiden Tran who picked up the yard to keep the drive alive.
A 15-yard personal foul penalty against the Aztecs put Beckman into the red zone and the Patriots ended up capping the drive on a 2-yard touchdown run from Czaykowski.
The senior running back then scored his third touchdown, this one on a 42-yard run that gave the Patriots a 21-0 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Beckman led, 21-7, in the fourth quarter when Musselman-Cano came up with his second interception – his eighth of the season.
The interception came in the red zone when the Aztecs were 18 yards away from a touchdown that would have gotten them to within one score.
Instead, The Patriots converted the interception into a touchdown and a 28-7 lead on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Noah Kim to Zak Hazboun.
“Every week we come out, we watch film against the other team,” Musselman-Cano said. “We knew they were going to throw and we put, arguably, our best corner on their best receiver and then see who can go make plays.”
The Aztecs scored on an 18-yard touchdown pass from A.J. Rivera to Nick Dangleis but with one minute, 43 seconds left in the game, there was little chance of a comeback.