PHOTOS: Sunny Hills wins a thriller over Tustin 21-14 and advances to CIF quarterfinals

Sunny Hills players celebrate after Friday’s victory over Tustin. Photos courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone)

The fourth quarter of first-round playoff games in 2017 and 2018 are 12 minutes of football that the Sunny Hills Lancers would like to forget.

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The fourth quarter of Friday night’s first-round game with Tustin is 12 minutes of football they will always remember.

After trailing a massive Tustin football team for most of the evening, the top-seeded Lancers scored 14 points in the final period to edge the Tillers 21-14 in a CIF Division 8 first-round game at Buena Park High School. The winning TD came with 31 seconds remaining when Jun Ahn bolted nine yards on third down for his third score of the night.

“In 2017 and 18 we were tied, 28-28, going into the fourth quarter, gave up 14 points in the fourth quarter and lost,” mused Sunny Hills Coach Pete Karavedas. “Tonight we scored 14 points in the fourth quarter and won.”

Karavedas was an underclassman at Downey Calvary Chapel and none of his players had been born when Sunny Hills won its last playoff game in 1996.

The Lancers (9-2) will be back at Buena Park High, their home field, next Friday for a quarterfinal round game with Riverside Poly.

It looked for much of Friday’s game that the playoff victory drought would continue. Tustin’s diminutive Matt Rodriquez (5-5, 135), running behind an offensive line that outweighed the Sunny Hills defensive line by nearly 100 pounds (307-210), scored second (2-yard run) and third (57-yard run)-quarter touchdowns as the Tillers built a 14-0 lead midway through the third quarter.

Rodriguez, a remarkably patient runner, always waiting for blocks to develop and then reacting quickly and with impressive strength for his size, rushed 27 times for more than 180 yards on the evening. 

With the Tustin offense connecting on critical third-down passes, the Tiller offense kept the Lancer offense on the sideline much of the game’s first 30 minutes.

And even though it did get nicked throughout the game, the Lancer defense had its moments, stopping Tustin (5-6) on a 4^th-and-1 at the Sunny Hills 16 with a minute left in the half.

Sunny Hills got its offense untracked after falling behind 14-0, driving the length of the field, culminating with Ahn’s first score, a 13-yard run. A poor snap on the extra point attempt foiled the kick and the Lancers were still in a precarious position, training, 14-6, with little more than a quarter to play.

As it would throughout the game’s final 14 minutes, the Lancer defense managed to force two Tiller punts and Ahn, quarterback Luke Duxbury and receiver Wilson Cal took full advantage.

The ignitor was Ahn, held in check much of the night by the Tillers, started an inside run, survived a tackle attempt about 10 yards up field and broke away on a critical 62-yard run.

Sunny Hills called timeout before going for two. “The timeout was a reflection of our team,” Karavedas said. “Each kid that had a play suggestion, had a good play call for someone else on the team.”

The play called was a slot sweep to speedy Brandon Roberts, who plowed through a tackler at the goal line and pulled the Lancers into a tie with 10:32 to play. 

It was Tustin’s turn again and the Lancer defense, led by a line of Jake Masser (205 pounds), Austin Martino (200) and Kenny Lathrum (210) and linebackers Carson Irons, Vince Silva and Kevin Ha were up to the task, forcing a Tiller punt at the seven-minute mark.

The Lancers took over on their own 30 with 6:54 to play and David Harris sparked the drive with a 20-yard run on first down. Later in the drive Duxbury hit Cal with a 9-yard pass on fourth-and-6 and three downs later Tustin was hit with a devastating 15-yard personal foul penalty that put the ball on the four.

Tustin had used its timeouts earlier in the half and couldn’t stop the clock but the Tillers dug in and stopped two Ahn runs for minus four yards. 

The Lancers’ third-down play was a conservative one to preserve good field position for a 4^th-down field goal attempt but Ahn eliminated that circumstance by rocketing up the middle for the deciding touchdown.

Tustin had 31 seconds on offense and the Lancers survived one hold your breath moment when a long Tiller pass was beyond the reach of the receiver. A quarterback sack on the next play led to a joyous Sunny Hills celebration.

RELATED: Early story/picture from Friday night

—Courtesy Jim McCormack for the OC Sports Zone