PHOTOS: Bolsa Grande celebrates decisive homecoming victory over Century

Bolsa Grande running back Mikey Haley breaks free for a touchdown as Century’s José Jiménez pursues during the first quarter of Friday night’s game at Bolsa Stadium. PHOTOS: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone. 

Bolsa Grande High School’s football team put on some offensive fireworks Friday night much to the delight of a big homecoming crowd.

The Matadors jumped out to a 21-0 first quarter lead and rolled to a 41-13 victory over Century, which had enjoyed early season success under Coach Lance Neal winning its first three games.

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Bolsa Grande quarterback Tank Britton had a phenomenal game completing 21 of 30 passes for a career high 221 yards and three touchdowns and running back Mikey Haley had touchdown runs of 45, 1 and 8 yards and hauled in a 15-yard TD pass in the final seconds of the game. He had five catches for 92 yards.

“It was a hard-fought win, I give Century credit, they came out and made it a little bit of a challenge and a couple times we were able to get stops,” said Bolsa Coach Michael Acosta. “I’m really pleased by what we did. We gave away the last two games (losses to Savanna and Artesia) in my opinion, now we’re really coming together as a group and things are starting to gel and we just need to keep it rolling as the weeks progress.”

Century Coach Lance Neal credited Bolsa Grande.

“They were much better than us tonight,” he said. “They beat us on the perimeter a lot which hurt us and that hasn’t been happening. I think our kids thought we were getting pretty good and we weren’t quite as good as they thought we were and we just got to go back and have a better week of practice next week.

“One of our goals has never been to go undefeated, so there’s nothing we lost, we just got to keep getting better from here.”

Haley scored on a 45-yard TD in the first quarter to give the Matadors the early lead. Then Britton connected with Jacob Ortiz on a 17-yard TD pass. Haley’s 1-yard TD put Bolsa Grande ahead 21-0.

The touchdown was set up after a bad Century snap on a punt gave Bolsa Grande possession at the Century 5-yard line.

Century (3-1) got on the scoreboard when quarterback Daniel Joya hit Kevin Jaimes on a 19-yard TD pass to cut the lead to 21-7.

After getting the ball back, the Centurions were driving near midfield when a brief skirmish broke out after Joya carried the ball and got back up. Century and Bolsa Grande coaches confirmed that officials ejected Joya and Bolsa Grande linebacker Samuel Montes de oca and assessed offsetting penalties. It was not clear what triggered the incident.

Under CIF rules both players would have to sit out the next game barring a change by CIF officials after review.

“I told the refs they made a mistake …. so we will appeal that and hopefully he will get to play next week, that was rough not having him, but that’s the reality of high school football,” said Neal. “I watched it on the video and I don’t see anything so hopefully they will see it the same way and let him play next week.”

Joya completed five passes for 39 yards in the first half but the Centurions, trailing by two touchdowns going into the second half, were left scrambling trying to replace him.

Acosta said his player who was ejected said he told him he didn’t do anything to warrant the ejection and he plans to look at videotape.

“I’ll go back and I’ll look at the film,” Acosta said. “The refs saw what they saw, we just got to live with it.”

But Bolsa Grande still had plenty of firepower in the second half to pull away. Haley scored on an 8-yard TD run to make it 28-7.

Jose Jimenez, who was used at QB in the second half for Century, scored from 10 yards out in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 28-13.

But Britton connected with Ortiz on a 26-yard TD pass to put the Matadors comfortably ahead 35-13 midway through the fourth quarter.

“We played a great game, we had a great game plan going in and we really rallied together and we came out to play,” Britton said. “This is what we should have done a few weeks ago, but now we’re rolling and we’re already looking forward to next week. It was a great connection between me and my receivers, this is what we’ve been waiting for to happen.”

Bolsa Grande’s defense was tough. Century’s leading rusher was Jimenez, who had 59 yards on 10 carries. Noe Najera rushed for 31 yards on 10 carries.

“The most important thing is that we didn’t turn the ball over,” Acosta said. “The previous games we had a tendency to turn the ball over. Offense showed up, defense showed up. I’m very pleased about the performance.”

Besides the botched snap on the punt, Century also turned the ball over twice on fumbles.

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Pre-game photos of Century vs. Bolsa Grande Friday night football game

–—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com