LAKE FOREST – For three quarters, both El Toro and Irvine were looking for lightning. In the fourth quarter, they created a storm.
Getting a kick return for a touchdown and then a 51-yard score in the final two minutes, El Toro held off Irvine, 31-25, to maintain a share of first place in the Iota League.
The Chargers, now 5-3 overall and 3-0 in league, will play Troy, the other current unbeaten team in the final week of league play. But for the moment, they know they have punched their ticket to the CIF-SS playoffs.
Irvine dropped to 6-2 overall, 2-1 league. Like El Toro, the Vaqueros still have a game remaining with Troy.
Makya Chee led Irvine. He rushed 17 times for 154 yards and touchdowns of 1 and 51 yards – the latter with 1:58 remaining. Wyatt Nucci passed for 177 yards and ran for scores of 1 and 24 yards.
The biggest play of the night belonged to senior Devin Costic. While Irvine was in comeback mode and in the midst of scoring three times in their final four possessions, Costic was moved up a line in the receiving formation where he was more likely to get a short kickoff.
With Irvine missing its regular kicker, Costic returned it 65 yards for a touchdown to momentarily quell Irvine’s momentum.
“I talked to my coach and told him that we need to switch me,” Costic said after scoring his first varsity touchdown. “I knew I could run it back. They needed to trust me.”
They did. And he did.
It was a back-breaker for Irvine.
“We stop them there, that could have been our shot,” said Irvine coach Tom Ricci, who was encouraged despite the loss. “That’s why they say special teams is a third of the game. It certainly was tonight. … Too little, too late.”
Costic’s score made it 24-12 after Irvine had pulled to 17-12 on quarterback Sina Saferzadeh’s 20-yard run with 7:05 left in the game.
Saferzadeh – limited to 30 yards in the first half on 3 of 9 passing – finished 17 of 30 for 270 yards and touchdowns of 24 yards to Seamus Hoffman, and 3 and 30 yards to Smith Spivey – the latter with 24 seconds remaining.
The game was rather blasé in the early going. It wasn’t until the second half that the teams hinted at their full potential.
Chee capped a 99-yard drive on El Toro’s first possession of the third quarter. His 1-yard run provided a 14-6 advantage with 3:38 remaining in the quarter. The big play of that drive was a 47-yard pass from Nucci to Troy Tedtaotao.
Chee wasn’t done, but neither was Irvine.
After Gianluca D’Amato kicked a 25-yard field goal for a 17-6 advantage, Irvine answered with scores on three of its next four possessions. But by that time, El Toro was also rounding into championship shape.
Irvine went 80 yards in six plays with Saferzadeh scoring from 20. Missing its senior kicker, Dylan Nguyen, the Vaqueros went for two points, but failed for the second time. They failed to get a PAT on three occasions.
Chee added a 51-yard scoring run with 1:58 remaining – a score that provided the differential in the outcome and made Spivey’s TD reception with 24 seconds remaining inconsequential.