SAN CLEMENTE — San Clemente threw a monkey wrench into the Alpha League championship race by beating previously undefeated Los Alamitos 28-9 Friday at San Clemente High.
Los Alamitos (8-1, 1-1) entered Friday as one of the six remaining undefeated teams in Orange County. The Griffins are ranked No. 6 in the county Top 25 poll and San Clemente (5-4, 1-1) is ranked No. 12.
San Clemente’s coaches and players saw multiple news clippings of media members talking about next week’s game between Los Alamitos and Mission Viejo deciding the Alpha League championship. The Tritons felt they were being overlooked and that feeling fueled them during the week.
“There was a lot of talk about them and Mission (Viejo) next week and our kids took that personally,” San Clemente coach Jaime Ortiz said. “That was our mantra this week, ‘control our destiny.’ Last week, we didn’t play a good second half against Mission but we were neck-and-neck with them. We knew we had to play four quarters this week and that’s what we did.”
Los Alamitos was averaging over 41 points per game entering Friday and San Clemente held the Griffins to one offensive touchdown. The Tritons held Los Alamitos’ strong rushing offense to 69 yards rushing.
“The big thing was keeping everything in front of us,” Ortiz said. “Going into the game we knew we had to stop the run and force their quarterback to make plays. Our kids did a good job making some plays and our front did a good job getting pressure with four men.”
Joshua Kerst had three sacks for the Tritons and Patrick Norman added one.
Sophomore Preston Beck made his first home start at quarterback for the Tritons. Beck has appeared in San Clemente’s last three games and started one, but wasn’t even listed on the MaxPreps roster for the Tritons’ most recent home game.
He was effective Friday completing 19 of 31 passes for 181 yards with three touchdowns.
“He had some sophomore jitters a little bit but I thought he did a good job tucking and running at times,” Ortiz said of Beck. “He controlled the offense, got the ball where it was supposed to be and had a good game for us.”
Jaxson Rex caught all three of Beck’s touchdown passes and had a game-high 112 yards on nine receptions.
On San Clemente’s first possession of the game, a long snap sailed over its punter’s head and went through the back of the endzone for a safety to give Los Alamitos a 2-0 lead.
San Clemente forced a turnover on downs on defense and followed it with a long-scoring drive aided by penalties against Los Alamitos. The Tritons went on a 13-play. 86-yard touchdown drive capped by a 3-yard touchdown pass from Beck to Rex.
Los Alamitos had 35 penalty yards on the drive and all three penalties gave San Clemente first downs.
Penalties were a major problem for Los Alamitos throughout the game. The Griffins were penalized 10 times for 120 yards.
Early in the second quarter, Los Alamitos took the lead on a 6-yard touchdown run by Lenny Ibarra.
Carson Sloan ran for a 3-yard touchdown for San Clemente to give the Tritons a 14-9 lead at halftime.
San Clemente opened the second half with a seven-play, 71-yard touchdown drive that ended with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Beck to Rex.
Midway through the fourth quarter Beck connected with Rex for a 7-yard touchdown pass to extend San Clemente’s lead to 28-9.
Ibarra had 106 yards receiving for Los Alamitos and led the Griffins in rushing with 48 yards. Colin Creason threw for 188 yards on 19 completions for the Griffins and Logan Moore had a sack.
Los Alamitos will host Mission Viejo on Thursday, Oct. 30. Mission Viejo is the only 2-0 team in the Alpha League.
San Clemente will play Edison at Huntington Beach High on Friday, Oct. 31.
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