Eagles protect house to set up title showdown

By Bill Dickens
Updated: October 24, 2015

By Bill Dickens
© East County Sports.com
EL CAJON (10-24-15) — As visiting Monte Vista was driving for a late score in Friday’s (Oct. 23) Grossmont Valley League game at Granite Hills, the Eagles had one collective thing in mind.

That was: Protect the shutout.

“Coach VINNY (SAN FELIPO) said if we ever shut anybody out, he would dye his hair,” said junior linebacker KYLE SPURLOCK.

Somebody call the barber shop.

Coach Vinny, who now has dark brown hair, will now have wide blond streaks.

Granite Hills (7-1, 2-0) bolted to a 30-0 first half lead en route to a victory that will likely set up a winner-take-all showdown at Santana on Nov. 6^th.

The Eagles capitalized on four Monte Vista turnovers and a bad snap on a punt attempt to turn the game into a blowout.

Eagles quarterback JACOB SIEGFRIED rushed for 119 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries, and clicked on 5 of 10 passes for 40 yards and a score.

“Our receivers were blowing up kids downfield,” noted Siegfried. “Our game plan was on tonight.”

And that was to keep the ball on the ground, where the Eagles rushed for 209 yards on 43 carries that included 9 ball carriers.

Steady THOMAS YOUMOG played only the first half but rushed for 50 yards and scored two touchdowns of 5 and 3 yards on 15 carries.

Monte Vista’s sputtering offense got a spark from quarterback RASHAUN WILLIS BROWN and running back JACCOB JARDIM, who rushed 10 times for 76 yards.

Brown was forced into quarterback duty when starter DENNIS DAHLIN was sidelined with a possible concussion suffered during practice.

When the Monarchs muscled their way to the Granite Hills 1-yard line on a 10-yard run by Brown, they coughed up the ball on a fumble and Spurlock recovered it for the Eagles

TYLER GONZALEZ also recovered a fumble and made 5 tackles.

“We have a lot of depth all over the field – speed and power,” said DURADE AQILI, who notched 3 tackles. Tonight we played a 5-2-4 line; usually we go with a 4-2-5 because we expected them to run the ball the majority of the time, which is what they did.”

Six-foot-3, 240-pound BRANDON PARADISE said, “This was one of our best defensive games. They had some quick little kids but our coaches stressed that ‘staying home’ thing. We have a good defense. We have like three subs for every position.”

Also grabbing a fumble recovery was TYLER GONZALEZ, who logged 4 tackles.

Middle linebacker AHMAD JONES recorded a sack of the Monte Vista quarterback.

Granite Hills kicker BRYCE STRICKLAND was 4-for-4 on PATs for the Eagles. He missed a 49-yard field goal that was wide right.