GAME OF THE WEEK
Central’s Jonathan Medina (31) runs with the ball while quarterback Deniro osuna (11) fakes a pass, during the spartans round two playoff game against Imperial; Friday night at Cal Jones Field.
EL CENTRO — Friday night at Cal Jones Field, the highly anticipated rematch between the Central Union Spartans and Imperial High Tigers — whose first meeting had a photo-finish — developed into a one-sided a air, much to the delight of the home crowd.
With seemingly half the county in attendance and temperatures falling to an Imperial Valley frigid 55 degrees, the Spartans rolled to a 34-7 victory, earning themselves a spot in the CIF-SDS semifinals.
Though Central would, by the end of the night, stand alone on the mountaintop, the game’s opening series didn’t show them to their greatest advantage.
The Great Spartan Offensive Machine, which spent so much of the regular season jetting downfield with absurd ease, took a while to get fully revved up. Their initial possession saw them march all the way to the Imperial 10-yard line, but that was largely thanks to Tiger penalties. The drive ended on a failed fourthdown conversion.
Sandwiched, as it was, between two Tiger punts, the drive seemed to betoken a prolonged defensive struggle.
Back-to-back-to-back punts, a missed Imperial field goal attempt, and an interception of Central quarterback Deniro Osuna by Imperial quarterback Santiago De La Torre — featuring a truly impressive grab on a leaping pirouette — only furthered this impression.
In fact, it wasn’t until there was only 1:16 left to go in the second quarter that either team made the scoreboard operator earn their keep.
Imperial followed De La Torre’s pick with a threeand-out, giving the ball to the Spartans on their 30yard line.
Central would also go three-and-out after an overthrow of a streaking Joseph Tarango and a pass to Thadeo Campbell on the same route being broken up by De La Torre, but they managed to pin the Tigers way back on a magnificent boomer by Jose Berlin-Torres.
The Tigers actually managed to scrum their way out of this jam — picking up a gift first after Central was called for too many men on the field when Imperial lined up to punt following three short runs — but ended up punting anyway after a third-down pass turned out to be just a little too high for tight end Tanner Travis.
This gave the Spartans the ball at their own 36. After a dropped bomb to wide-out Tyrese Marsh, Osuna hit Fernando Morales on a screen that saw the sophomore scamper all the way to the Imperial 6-yard line before being tackled. This set up an Angel Nava-Esparza stuff to give Central a 7-0 lead following the PAT, which would send them into halftime on a high note after the Tigers ran out the clock.
The score seemed to unburden the Spartans, and the game started to come home to them, free-and-easy like (though it may have helped that the Tigers’ De La Torre didn’t appear on defense to start the second half).
After receiving the kickoff to start the third quarter, Central needed all of three plays to find the end zone a second time: Another Morales big-gainer on a slant route, a center-of-gravity Jonathan Medina plunge, and a long pass to Marsh on an out that went for 30-ish yards and a score.
The game hadn’t yet completely unspooled for the Tigers, but it was clear the Spartan offense was at this point near to being an armed and fully operational battle station, with orders to fire when ready. Imperial needed a score in the worst way. Luckily for them, they got one, arguably in just such a fashion.
They started by going three-and-out. Then De La Torre kicked an impossibly short punt, which may have been blocked by Central. The ball traveled maybe 10 to 15 yards downfield, where a Spartan player fell on it, or tried to. The ball spurted away from him and was scooped up by the Tigers, who were allowed to keep the ball, despite the vociferous objections of the Spartan bench.
Buoyed by fortune, Imperial moved the ball as effectively as they would all evening.
They got around 40 yards on a swing pass to Nathan Hart and eventually arrived at the 10 after a De La Torre scramble and a Spartan penalty. From there, after several unsuccessful conversion attempts, they got six on a fourth-down pass to Joey Ramos, right at the goal line.
With a one score (14-7) differential after the made PAT, the game still appeared to have real thriller potential, but it was not to be. Because, as noted, the Central offense was now fully alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic.
The Spartans’ first play from scrimmage following the Tigers’ score was called back due to holding. The second was a 60-yard surgical strike to Marsh, followed by two nice Medina runs and a slant to Tarango, which saw the senior ex-Tiger juke and dive his was into the end zone from about 15 yards out. 21-7 Central.
That wasn’t quite the back-breaker, but after the next Imperial possession ended with a punt, and the Spartans went right back down the field to make it 28-7 on a Joseph Castillo red-zone run, the worm had clearly turned.
The Tigers would make a spirited drive downfield in response, but it seemed clear that even if they managed to score, Central was ready to come right back out and give them another dose of Vitamin TD.
As it happened the Tigers didn’t score. After getting four first downs in fairly impressive fashion, De La Torre was stripped on a quarterback keeper, and Nava-Esparza fell on the live ball to give the Spartans possession, which they used to go up 34-7 after Osuna uncorked a monster pass to Marsh that went for 73 yards and seis puntos.
The only meaningful play to follow would be a Michael Sullivan interception with the Tigers in desperation mode.
The Spartans next play on Nov. 16. They will host Santa Fe Christian, who defeated third-seeded Monte Vista Friday night.