CARLSBAD \u2013 As Arcadia Rio Hondo Prep ran the ball over and over and over again, the cries rained down from the Santa Fe Christian fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bet they run it! \u2026 I dare you to throw it! \u2026 I\u2019d rather watch tug of war.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what\u2019s that saying? \u201cIf it ain\u2019t broke \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
And so Rio Hondo Prep stuck to the ground and broke Santa Fe Christian\u2019s heart. Running the ball 41 times and passing it once (intentionally out of bounds), Rio Hondo defeated the Eagles 26-21 Saturday night at Carlsbad High School in the Southern California Division 2-A championship game.<\/p>\n
The Kares (15-0) advance to next weekend\u2019s state championship. Santa Fe Christian\u2019s quest for its first official state championship ends with a 13-1 season.<\/p>\n
As Sante Fe Christian players, coaches, friends and family members mingled about the field after the game, coach Jon Wallace said, \u201cI\u2019m so proud of these guys. They\u2019ve done things no one else has done (in program history).\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite a high school enrollment of just 400, Santa Fe Christian won the first CIF San Diego Section Div. 2 championship in school history.<\/p>\n
Like SFC, Rio Hondo, too, is a small private school. High school enrollment: 135, 82 of whom are boys, 43 of which play football.<\/p>\n
There is one big difference between the programs. Rio Hondo runs and runs and runs the ball. SFC, behind a future college quarterback in junior Dax Labrum, who\u2019s tutored by Drew Brees, the Eagles are more balanced, but favor the air.<\/p>\n
Labrum finished the night 25 of 33 for 237 yards and two touchdowns, plus one costly interception that led to a touchdown and a crucial lost fumble. Rio Hondo ran 41 times for 267 yards.<\/p>\n
Of Rio Hondo, Wallace said, \u201cSome of the best O-line play I\u2019ve seen in quite a few years. They\u2019ve got a couple big maulers, then a couple kids that are just really technical. And everyone on that team carries the ball well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrasting styles were displayed from the jump. SFC took the opening kickoff and covered 85 yards in 17 plays, eating up 7 minutes and 59 seconds, scoring on a 1-yard run by Lincoln Mundis.<\/p>\n
Labrum was 6 of 9 on the drive for 62 yards.<\/p>\n
Rio Hondo took the ensuing kickoff and did its thing. Nine rushing plays, 80 yards, scoring on a 1-yard run.<\/p>\n
Five plays into Santa Fe Christian\u2019s next series, Labrum was picked off on the Eagles\u2019 32.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s 100% my fault,\u201d said Labrum. \u201cI kind of didn\u2019t make the right read. They switched up coverages and got the best of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Santa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-preps-1207-015.jpg\")
Santa Fe Christian\u2019s Baylen Brees #4 is comforted by his father Drew Brees during the Division 2-A Southern California Regional at Carlsbad High School on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 in Carlsbad, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Five plays after the pick, Rio Hondo scored on a 5-yard run for a 14-7 lead.<\/p>\n
Back came the Eagles. This time, the 6-foot-3 Labrum orchestrated a beautiful 74-yard, 14-play scoring drive. With only 17 seconds remaining in the half, Labrum hit Brady Berg with a 2-yard scoring pass.<\/p>\n
The drive ate up 6 minutes, 58 seconds. Labrum was 6-of-6 on the drive for 54 yards. A ball-control passing game.<\/p>\n
Regarding eating up the clock and keeping the opposing offense off the field with a passing game, Wallace said, \u201cWe were joking about that on the sideline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rio Hondo broke the 14-14 halftime draw by scoring from 2 yards on its first second-half possession. Given the serve and hold, alternating scoring tendency up to then, it looked like SFC caught a break when it blocked the extra point to hold Rio Hondo\u2019s lead to 20-14.<\/p>\n
With SFC perched on the visitors\u2019 5 on the Eagles\u2019 next possession, it looked like Santa Fe Christian would take the lead. But Labrum lost a snap and the ball as Rio Hondo recovered a fumble.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on with motion (on the play),\u201d said Labrum. \u201cNot paying attention to detail, just a lapse in focus for a second. We\u2019ll work on that and make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the talented junior, who is already drawing interest from multiple colleges, will have to wait until his senior year to atone for the mistake.<\/p>\n
Rio Hondo took a 26-14 lead with 1:53 to play on a 4-yard run. Labrum led a valiant comeback, directing the Eagles 79 yards in only 61 seconds. He hit Chase Wooley with a 6-yard score with just 52 seconds to play, pulling to 26-21 with 52 seconds on the clock.<\/p>\n
SFC\u2019s last hope, an onside kick, bounced out of bounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall,\u201d said Labrum, \u201cI\u2019m proud of the way this team fought. We fought to the end. That\u2019s what got us to this championship game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rio Hondo Prep 26, Santa Fe Christian 21<\/p>\n
Rio Hondo 0 14 6 6 \u2013 26<\/strong><\/p>\n SFC 7 7 0 7 \u2013 21<\/strong><\/p>\n SFC \u2013 Mundis 1 run (Scott kick)<\/p>\n RH \u2013 Lee 1 run (Jara kick)<\/p>\n RH \u2013 Shine 5 run (Jara kick)<\/p>\n SFC \u2013 Berg 3 pass from Labrum (Scott kick)<\/p>\n RH \u2013 Lee 3 run (kick blocked)<\/p>\n RH \u2013 Lee 4 run (run failed)<\/p>\n SFC \u2013 Wooley 6 pass from Labrum (Scott kick)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARLSBAD \u2013 As Arcadia Rio Hondo Prep ran the ball over and over and over again, the cries…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":430475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3102,1370,3549,7264,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-430474","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-top-stories-sdut","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115677046580264063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430474","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=430474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}