SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – The rain seemingly brought the game where St. Margaret’s wanted it. Still without a starting quarterback, the Tartans had found a lane late in the season through smashmouth, running and defensive slugfests.
St. Margaret’s got off a couple counterpunches against Hillcrest of Riverside on Friday night, but the visiting Trojans landed the deciding haymakers.
Hillcrest converted three fourth-downs in the second half, including two back-breaking, over-the-top passing touchdowns from Matthew Ramos to Zyren Jones, and St. Margaret’s couldn’t respond in a 27-13 defeat in the CIF-SS Division 10 quarterfinals at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School.
Hillcrest (7-5) will host Pacifica in the Division 10 semifinals next week.
Ramos threw three touchdown passes and carried the ball 25 times for 89 yards and a touchdown. Reyez Ortiz ran the ball 24 times for 78 yards.
“You can’t prepare for this,” Hillcrest coach Travis Carter said. “You could do wet ball drills, all that type of stuff. Until you’re out in it, it’s just kind of grinding and gritting, and just trying to fight through it one point at a time. I’m proud of the kids, man.”
St. Margaret’s (7-5) got into the CIF-SS playoffs by winning its final three league games, including a 7-3 grind at Westminster in the season finale. The Tartans edged by with one more win in the first round, 16-15 at Redlands East Valley, but the run came to a halt at home.
“We’ve showed up shorthanded all season, and they’ve always fought,” St. Margaret’s coach Dan O’Shea said, “and that’s all the coach could ask for, is they never stop playing as hard as they possibly can.”
St. Margaret’s was without starting junior quarterback Kai Letcher over the last three weeks, which forced the Tartans into a dual wildcat offense with seniors Andrew Toubin and Jack Klausner taking the reins.
Toubin carried the ball 12 times for 97 yards, including a 84-yard touchdown run, and Klausner ran the ball 11 times for 93 yards, including a 74-yard touchdown on his first touch. Both runs were near immediate answers to Hillcrest touchdowns in the first and third quarters.
“Huge credit to our offensive staff,” O’Shea said. “We didn’t blink. They didn’t blink. They were like, okay, we got to change our offense, and we had to go wildcat mode, and we were able to get a few wins out of it. It was hamstrung, but… the will of our kids and the belief of our kids never stopped.”
While St. Margaret’s got responses, Hillcrest rallied.
Following Toubin’s touchdown run, Angel Maldonando converted a fake punt run on fourth-and-4 for the Trojans, and on the next set of downs, Ramos tossed a long ball behind the Tartans defense on a 41-yard rainbow to Jones for a 20-13 lead.
“Matt Ramos, special player, man,” Carter said. “With a situation like that, game on the line, I’ll put the ball in his hands every time.”
Later in the fourth quarter, St. Margaret’s muffed a punt looking up into the rain and diving onto the slick field, and Hillcrest recovered at the Tartans’ 27-yard line.
On fourth-and-10, Ramos again went over the St. Margaret’s defense on a 26-yard touchdown to Jones for the 27-13 lead.
“Spirit breakers,” O’Shea said. “Credit the QB in the rain, spotted the ball right on him perfectly in stride. We’ll own that, certainly as a coaching staff, and as a team, we own the mistakes that we made, but I wouldn’t want to play a CIF playoff game with any other kids than this St. Margaret Tartans.”
With just under five minutes to play following the score, St. Margaret’s dialed up a halfback pass, but the attempt was intercepted by Hillcrest’s Dylan Bailey, as the Trojans began to salt down their quarterfinal victory.
Ramos threw a five-yard touchdown to Hudson Nguyen in the first quarter for Hillcrest.
Graham Holcomb and Sam Ludlum made numerous defensive plays in the backfield for St. Margaret’s, and Holcomb pulled in a one-handed highlight interception in the second quarter.
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