Strong second half fuels Spartans’ win

Maybe the Strathmore High football team thought its top-seed status was a free pass to the state finals.

Maybe the Spartans didn’t realize visiting Orange Cove was better than its 3-7 regular-season record would suggest.

None of that matters know. Whatever Strathmore coach Jeromy Blackwell said after his team took a 10-6 lead into the halftime locker room, well, it worked.

The Spartans beat the No. 8 Titans 24-6 in Thursday’s first-round playoff game, advancing to the Central Section Division VI semifinals Friday, Nov. 17.

So, pray tell, what is it that Blackwell said to a team that’s been hanging half-a-hundred on teams throughout an 11-0 season? Did he quote Gandhi, or read them some morose passage from Hemingway?

“It was intense,” said senior tackle Shaylon Singh.

“It was ugly,” star running back Joseph Garcia. “Things you can’t put in the (paper).”

“We gave them the motivation they needed,” Blackwell said, half glad the otherwise perfect Spartans finally gave him a reason to hurl a few verbal projectiles across the room. “We needed adversity. They got challenged. We needed this.”

Remember, this is an Orange Cove team the Spartans mauled 55-22 on Sept. 22, with a 35-14 halftime lead to boot.

That was then. The playoffs are now, which is to say nothing comes easy anymore.

Sure, Thursday’s games had all the early makings of a mismatch begging for a running clock. Strathmore got the ball first and needed seven plays to get Garcia in the end zone on a 10-0 run.

But then, quarterback Nick Salas threw an interception. The next drive stalled, and with record-setting kicker Osvaldo Ibarra out wearing a knee brace, the Spartans settled for a 38-yard field goal by backup Enrique Gomez.

Orange Cove responded with a 13-play, 81-yard drive capped by Michael Barraza’s 1-yard touchdown dive. Does someone want to explain how this game suddenly got so off script?

“That second quarter, we just went flat,” Blackwell said. “I don’t know what happened there.”

We only know what happened after that.

A Strathmore defense that hasn’t played under pressure to hold a lead all year suddenly played as if the season was depending on them. Given the Spartans had nine of 10 games by 30plus points, this defense had always been tough because they could be, never because they had to be.

Now, everything was on their shoulders, with an added problem: the two best sets of shoulders on defense weren’t in pads Thursday. Middle linebacker Damian Valencia, a leading candidate for league defensive player of the year, was out with an injury. Same goes for defensive end Jadon Guire, the roster’s closest thing to a Division I prospect.

How did the shortstaffed Spartans respond in the second half?

Three-and-out. Interception, Armando Rodriguez. Four straight punts. Total offense allowed: minus-2 yards on 20 plays.

“Stuffed ‘em,” Blackwell said, giving credit to defensive coordinator Scott Bowser for making adjustments after a season of letting seniors play like seniors.

“We just needed to execute and do what we had to do,” said Singh, the overpowering force who inspired the Titans center to flub no less than five shotgun snaps.

Garcia sacked the quarterback on two of those fumbled snaps, showing he had just as much value on defense as he does on offense — and with 203 yards on 23 carries, yeah, the senior back is still pretty great on offense.

His 42-yard touchdown dash with 2 minutes left in the third quarter gave the Spartans a 24-6 lead, leaving all 11 Titans defenders behind him. Garcia had 133 of his yards in the second half, often running behind Singh for eight double-digit gains. This, while playing both ways all game.

Garcia pushed past the 5,000-yard mark for the career, entering the game with 4,890 yards, per historian Bob Barnett. He also had 91 career touchdowns, tied for sixth in Central Section all-time history, before adding two Thursday.

Alonso Acevedo added a 20-yard touchdown run on Strathmore’s first drive of the second half. He didn’t

play in the first half because Blackwell wanted to rest his change-of-pace rusher. Those plans changed when all did not go well in the first half.

Consider Strathmore properly woke for the semifinals, when they host No. 5 Orosi. The Spartans beat the Cardinals 35-13 on Sept. 15, a game which they led 28-0 at halftime.

From the sound of Blackwell’s halftime speech, his Spartans won’t assume history will just repeat itself ever again.

Monache 50 Liberty 28

The 12th-seeded Monache High School football team jumped on fifthseeded Liberty early and went on to upset the Hawks 50-28 in the opening round of the CIF Central Section Division IV playoffs Thursday in Madera.

The Marauders (4-6, 2-3 EYL) passed for a touchdown, rushed for a score and led 15-0 with 3 minutes left in the first quarter.

Monache added two more passing TDS and a rushing score in the second quarter on the way to a 36-14 lead at halftime.

A rushing touchdown in the third and fourth quarters

gave MHS a 50-28 lead with 5 minutes left in the game.

Monache moves on to face fourth-seeded Kerman (9-1, 4-0 NSL) in Kerman on Nov. 17 in the quarterfinals.

Orosi 21 Granite Hills 14

Two fourth-quarter touchdowns by fifthseeded Orosi clinched a 21-14 comeback win over fourth-seeded Granite Hills Thursday at Jacob Rankin Stadium in the CIF Central Section Division VI playoffs.

Trailing 14-7, the Cardinals Jerry Huerta scored his second and third rushing touchdowns to give Orosi (8-3, 3-0 East Sierra League) the lead for good.

Huerta tied the game with a 42-yard run. The game-winner was a 3-yard rush with 5 minutes to go after Orosi recovered a fumble on the Grizzlies 34-yard line.

Huerta rushed for a 1-yard touchdown and the subsequent extra point gave the Cardinals a 7-0 lead with under a minute left in the first quarter.

After Granite Hills (8-3, 3-2 East Sequoia League)

missed a field in the second quarter, Orosi clung to a 7-0 lead at halftime.

Seth Luna’s 3-yard rushing TD for GHHS and extra point by Max Jimenez tied the game at 7 with 9 minutes left in the third quarter.

A 1-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Xayacheck and successful PAT gave the Grizzlies their first lead of the game 14-7 early in the fourth quarter.

Orosi advances to face top-seeded and undefeated Strathmore Friday, Nov. 17, at Spartan Stadium.

This was Granite Hills first trip to the playoffs since 2011 and first winning season since 2006. The Grizzlies finished tied for second in the East Sequoia League and posted six shutouts through 10 games.

Coalinga 41 Lindsay 7

The sixth-seeded Coalinga High School football team downed 11th-seeded Lindsay 41-7 in the first round of the CIF Central Section Division V playoffs on Thursday in Coalinga.