Calexico advances on big plays, goal-line defense
HOLTVILLE — The Calexico Bulldogs stung the Holtville Vikings with two long firsthalf scoring plays Friday, then survived a rousing comeback attempt by the home team in route to a 14-12 win in the CIFSan Diego Section Division V playoff quarterfinals.
The victory sends the Bulldogs (7-5, 1-3 Imperial Valley League) to their first CIF semifinal in several decades, head coach Fernando Solano said.
“We played each other (a 2928 Holtville win on Sept. 17) and watched game films, so we knew each other. It was going to come down to who executed,” Solano said on the field after the game just before his jubilant team doused him with a large jug of ice water.
The Bulldogs will play Mission Bay of San Diego, which defeated El Cajon Valley, 35-7, at 7 p.m. Friday at a location to be announced.
The tense game really came down to four plays. The two scores by the Bulldogs gave them a 14-0 halftime lead, with their kicking team able to convert both extra points. But they wouldn’t score again, and the Vikings (8-3, 4-1 Desert League) nudged in two fourth-quarter scores.
After both touchdowns Holtville head coach Jason Turner eschewed extra points in favor of two-point conversions, both of which the Calexico defense soundly stuffed.
“I give credit to our defense. They were lights out on those two goal-line stands (the twopoint conversions),” Solano said. “We knew what was coming and that last play (the second conversion attempt) we brought some fresh guys in.”
That second conversion try by the Vikings was clearly the game’s big moment. Trailing 14-6 with about six minutes left, Holtville forced a Calexico punt but a running-into-the-kicker penalty allowed Calexico to keep the ball.
It seemed like the coup de grace but the Viking defense was stout and forced another punt, which senior running back/safety Dorian Maize returned 32 yards to the Bulldog 38. Then, on second and 10, senior running back Donovan Johnston ran for 20 to the Bulldog 18.
The Vikings later converted a fourth down setting up 6-yard touchdown run by Johnston, who plunged through several defenders to reach the goal line with just 1:32 remaining in the game.
On the two-point try the snap seemed to be mishandled and the Bulldog rush swarmed the backfield leaving the Vikings two points short at 14-12.
The Vikings did force one more punt and mounted a drive in the final minute, which was snuffed out when the Bulldogs sacked Viking quarterback Spencer Hilfiker with two seconds remaining.
The Bulldogs were the first to break free from an ugly start that at one point featured three lost fumbles, two by Calexico, in four plays early in the first quarter.
On second and 8 from their own 48, Bulldog quarterback Abram Zazueta found wide receiver Andrew Rivera open over the middle. Snagging the sharp spiral at about the Calexico 40, he dashed untouched into the end zone to make it 7-0 Bulldogs with 9:14 left in the second quarter.
Later in the quarter, after a botched Viking flea flicker on fourth down gave the Bulldogs the ball back at their own 39, they drove to the Vikings 41. From there, senior Ernesto Sanchez waltzed through a gaping hole created by his offensive line and dashed to the end zone to give the Bulldogs a
14-0 lead with 2:01 left in the half.
A Viking drive before halftime ended in an interception, but their fortunes changed in the second half. After a grinding defensive face off for much of the third quarter, the Vikings found life after halting the Bulldogs on a fourth and 10 from the Viking 34 late in the third quarter.
Viking senior Gabriel Panalez intercepted Zazueta on a tipped pass and returned it to the Bulldog 45. At that point in the game, with the Bulldogs driving and already up 14-0, there was the feel that a score there would ice the game.
Having had their defense respond, the Viking offense, to that point moribund, found energy behind the running of Johnston and senior running back Payton Iten. Johnston set the table with an 11-yard burst from the Bulldog 16 to the five on the next-to-last play of the third quarter.
On the first play of the final frame Iten blasted through for the score on second and goal from the 8. After the failed conversion it was 14-6, Bulldogs.
The win leaves the Bulldogs the last Imperial Valley team standing in the CIF playoffs. They travel to San Diego next Friday to play 9-2 Mission Bay High School. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.