CORONA, Calif. — Nobody led by more than a touchdown after the first quarter. That is the whole game, and it is why Santa Margarita is 21-20 rather than the other way around.
SPIN's No. 5 opened it the way it drew it up. Isaia Vandermade knocked the ball loose from Malaki Davis and recovered at the Centennial 32, and eight plays later Adrian Petero finished from a yard out. Jaion Smith made it 14-0 in the second quarter after Fletch Palmer scrambled 15 yards to the 5.
Centennial answered with 1:29 left in the half, a 13-play, 75-yard drive that ended on a Jaden Jefferson throw to Quentin Hale. Kennie Leggett caught a 24-yarder early in the third to tie it at 14.
Then the play of the night. On the final snap of the third quarter, Ca'ron Williams stepped in front of a throw and returned it 30 yards. Kai Koga's kick made it 21-14.
"I saw it coming," Williams told the Los Angeles Times. "I saw the quarterback's eyes." He told the Orange County Register the same thing a different way: "Film room. I'm always looking at what the QB is looking at." It was his fifth career interception against Centennial in four games.
Braylin Drake's 11-yard run with 7:33 left cut it to 21-20. The extra point was deflected and hit the upright. Centennial got the ball back and turned it over on downs at the Santa Margarita 45 with 2:42 left, and Petero ran out the clock.
Petero carried 23 times for roughly 110 yards — the Times had 108, the Register 110, MaxPreps 111. Jefferson threw for 192 and two scores. Hale caught seven for 105. Kingston Jimmerson had two sacks in the first half and Aydan Steen added a late one, his fourth in two games.
Centennial played it without two offensive line starters and lost a third lineman in the third quarter.
"We're a tough, gritty football team," Carson Palmer told the Register. "This community gets behind this program tremendously. It's packed. Just proud that we didn't flinch." To his own team afterward, per the Times: "There was greatness on that field."
Matt Logan's read from the other sideline: "The defense played phenomenal. We were not on the same page on offense. The kids didn't waver and kept fighting."
It is the fourth straight time Santa Margarita has won this matchup.
