SAN MARCOS \u2014 After a back-and-forth, score-filled first half, Carlsbad High School put together a grind-it-out, time-consuming, fourth-quarter drive that sealed a 31-17 upset win over Mission Hills in a key Avocado West League game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe misfired on a couple of pass plays in the third quarter, but our defense was holding them,\u201d Carlsbad coach Thadd MacNeal said after his No. 5-ranked Lancers beat the No. 3-ranked Grizzlies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we put together a nice drive in the fourth quarter to kind of take control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leading 24-17, but with the game still very much in doubt, Carlsbad (7-0, 2-0) put together a 10-play, 91-yard drive that ate up 5 minutes and 6 seconds, with quarterback Eli MacNeal hitting Rocky Cummings with a 17-yard scoring pass.<\/p>\n
It was the only the second pass in a drive that featured runs of 14 yards by Kai Brown and 25 and 9 yards by Ian Wall.<\/p>\n
Then Carlsbad, keyed by a sack by Cummings, forced a Mission Hills punt with 5:20 to play.<\/p>\n
Mission Hills (6-1, 1-1) wouldn\u2019t get the ball back as Carlsbad used nine running plays to move 57 yards to eat up the rest of the clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a really good gameplan,\u201d said Cuimmings, who had three touchdown catches last week. \u201cScoring touchdowns is pretty cool, but the sack was a big play in the game. I\u2019ll do anything to help the teams. Playing both ways is what they need me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mission Hills opened the scoring on the game\u2019s first drive, with Troy Huhn hitting Josh Gonzales with a 13 pass to cap a six-play, 58-yard drive. Carlsbad drew even at the end of the first quarter with MacNeal capping a seven-play, 39-yard drive with an 8-yard pass to Kai Brown.<\/p>\n
Mission Hills reclaimed the lead when Huhn hit Ryan MacKenzie with a 76-yard strike down the home sideline.<\/p>\n
Carlsbad tied it at 14 when MacNeal and Darian Webb hooked up on a 50-yard catch and run.<\/p>\n
Ty Baker got the lead back for Mission Hills, nailing a 48-yard field goal. But Carlsbad scored twice in the last 1:46.<\/p>\n
Ethan Meyerhoff\u2019s 69-yard kickoff return set the Lancers up at the Mission Hills 30. Three plays later MacNeal found Cummings in the end zone for a 16-yard TD.<\/p>\n
After forcing a punt, Liam Campbell\u2019s 19-yard return set Carlsbad up at the 41. Six plays later, Beckham Filippini hit a 48-yard field goal to end the half with the Lancers up 24-17.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team is on its way to something special,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cI think we\u2019re proving we\u2019re an Open Division team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlsbad ran the ball 37 times for 187 yards, led by Kai Brown, who finished with 17 carries for 99 yards. Ian Wall finished with nine carries for 68 yards and Darian Webb seven carries for 31.<\/p>\n
MacNeal completed his first 11 passes and finished 17 of 24 for 188 yards.<\/p>\n
Cummings had three catches for 41 yards. Webb had four receptions for 87 yards and Brown four for 78.<\/p>\n
Mission Hills rushed for just 68 yards on 22 attempts.<\/p>\n
Huhn was 9 of 19 passing for 153 yards.<\/p>\n
Carlsbad 31, Mission Hills 17<\/p>\n
Carlsbad \u00a07 \u00a0 \u00a017 \u00a0 \u00a00 \u00a0 \u00a07 \u2013 31<\/strong><\/p>\n Mission Hills \u00a07 \u00a0 \u00a010 \u00a0 0 \u00a0 \u00a00 \u2013 17<\/strong><\/p>\n MH \u2013<\/strong> Gonzales 15 pass from Huhn (Baker kick)<\/p>\n C \u2013<\/strong> Brown 8 pass from MacNeal (Filippini kick)<\/p>\n MH \u2013<\/strong> MacKenzie 76 pass from Huhn (Baker kick)<\/p>\n C \u2013<\/strong> Webb 50 pass from MacNeal (Filippini kick)<\/p>\n MH \u2013<\/strong> Baker 48 FG<\/p>\n C \u2013<\/strong> Cummings 16 pass from MacNeal (Filippini kick)<\/p>\n C \u2013<\/strong> Filippini 48 FG<\/p>\n C \u2013<\/strong> Cummings 17 pass from MacNeal (Filippini kick)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Originally Published: October 10, 2025 at 11:02 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN MARCOS \u2014 After a back-and-forth, score-filled first half, Carlsbad High School put together a grind-it-out, time-consuming, fourth-quarter…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":294039,"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-294038","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\/115354274951267792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294038","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=294038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}