COLTON — In an offensive shootout, it was the Colton Yellowjackets who made the only defensive stop to halt the Rim of the World Fighting Scots’ offense and move back within playoff contention following a 56-49 victory.
Neither offense budged throughout the first 39 minutes of the game, with both teams scoring on seven of their eight possessions.
However, with nine minutes in the fourth quarter and Rim in the red zone while trailing by a touchdown, Colton’s defense held tight for four downs to make the only stop of the second half.
“We knew after last week’s game that we need one stop,” Colton head coach Ray Rodriguez said. “If we can get that one stop, we had a shot at winning this game.”
Following the turnover on downs, Yellowjackets junior quarterback Koa Regalado did what he had done four times prior in the game and threw for his fifth passing touchdown to give Colton a two-score lead with just over five minutes left in the game.
Countering each Colton score was Scots’ senior running back Tatum Ortiz, who would put Rim back within a score in the final four minutes, but the defense could not get the ball back in his hands for a final effort to match the score.
“Rim does what they do,” Rodriguez said. “They’re gonna smashmouth football you and we told ourselves if we can make this game our game and get into a shootout, we can beat them.”
Regalado and Ortiz would both set career-high marks, with Regalado rushing for 167 yards – including two 80-yard rushing touchdowns – and finishing the game with 526 all-purpose yards and seven total touchdowns, both new career-highs. Ortiz set a new career-high in rushing yards with 348 and tied his career-high with five rushing touchdowns.
“(Tatum) reassures me that we can do the things we want to do,” Rim head coach Joe Jurado said. “We can score. We can move. We gotta slow down those big plays.”
Both teams will need victories next week to maintain their San Andreas league-title hopes alive, with Rim hosting Kaiser (4-4, 2-0) and Colton visiting San Gorgonio (1-8, 0-2). If both teams win, there will be a three-way tie for the league-title, while both teams losing would lead to a three-way tie for second place.
“With the way we played this year, we’ve put ourselves in a little bit of a hole,” Rodriguez said. “Playoffs started for us this week, and it just so happened Rim was on the clock.”
“We gotta win next week to get a piece of the league title with everybody else,” Jurado said. “That’s our main focus. Ever since this conference has started, we’ve come down to the last week playing for a league championship. This year is not any different.”
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