In its only trip to San Diego County in 2025, the El Centro Central Spartans made sure to make the most of it.<\/p>\n
After Mt. Carmel scored the opening touchdown, the Spartans scored 41 unanswered points to win 41-13 over the Sundevils.<\/p>\n
The Spartans, who were the top seed in last year\u2019s CIF-San Diego Section Div. 3 playoffs, began their scoring when Sundevils senior quarterback Trevor Taumoepeau threw the ball up and into the hands of senior Joshua Garcia.<\/p>\n
Garcia, who caught the ball at the goal line, then returned it 100 yards to the opposite end zone for the pick-six and even the score at seven apiece in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was getting deep in my zone, and I saw that ball up,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI knew it was mine. It was underthrown. So, I picked it, made a cut and ran into the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the Spartans (3-0) took advantage of a turnover on downs and an interception from junior defensive lineman Isaiah Aguirre, which both changes of possessions led to Central touchdowns, \u00a0extending the lead to 21-7 with 3:33 left in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll those turnovers are all huge,\u201d Central head coach David Pena said. \u201cI tell our guys, \u2018There\u2019s a lot of hidden yardage. It\u2019s no different than Isaiah, how he had that pick on that screen that gave us middle of field position. So, we\u2019re fortunate that tonight we capitalized on turnovers. We did a good job as far creating turnovers.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Central was not done.<\/p>\n
The Spartans had the ball with under a minute remaining in the first half against the Sundevils (2-1). After a 4-yard rush, Pena called a screen play for Garcia, who, with the help of the blockers, took it to the house for 78-yard touchdown lead and a 21-point lead at halftime.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been making plays for us all year and making some big plays,\u201d Pena said of Garcia, who recorded a game-high 91 yards on four receptions and a touchdown offensively. \u201cThat\u2019s one of a few he\u2019s already done in game three already.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the second half, Central\u2019s ground game took charge.<\/p>\n
The trio of Matthew Lizaola Santiago Valdez and Eric Morales controlled the final 24 minutes.<\/p>\n
Lizaola recorded runs of 15, 32 and 55 yards in the final two quarters, while also logging two touchdowns. Valdez and Morales kept the running game strong while Lizaola needed a breather.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith our heavy squad, Matt running out there, it was super crucial on those third and fourth downs,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThey really stepped up tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mt. Carmel was led by senior wide receivers Atticus Enriquez and Connor Gibbons. Enriquez recorded six receptions for 74 yards while Gibbons caught seven passes for 61 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n
However, Sundevils head coach Drew Westling had to go to backup quarterback Kelly Leuck in the second quarter after Taumoepeau left the game due to injury.<\/p>\n
Next week, Central travels to Southwest EC Thursday while Mt. Carmel travels to San Diego High School Friday.<\/p>\n
Central 41, Mt. Carmel 13<\/p>\n
Central \u2013 \u00a07 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a021\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 13\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 41<\/strong><\/p>\n Mt. Carmel \u2013 \u00a07 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a00\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 13\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n M \u2013 Gibbons 17 pass from Taumoepeau (Adams kick)<\/p>\n C \u2013 Garcia 100 interception return (Rodriguez kick)<\/p>\n C \u2013 Vasquez 14 pass from Jimenez (Rodriguez kick)<\/p>\n C \u2013 Morales 23 pass from Hernandez (Rodriguez kick)<\/p>\n C \u2013 Garcia 78 pass from Hernandez (Rodriguez kick)<\/p>\n C \u2013 Lizaola 3 run (run failed)<\/p>\n C \u2013 Lizaola 1 run (Rodrguez kick)<\/p>\n M \u2013 Gibbons 1 pass from Lueck (kick failed)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In its only trip to San Diego County in 2025, the El Centro Central Spartans made sure to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":204246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3102,1370,3549,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-204245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115155826381204615","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}