University High School’s football team celebrated senior night Friday night with a 35-28 victory over Katella in the final game of the Omicron League schedule at Uni.
Pacifica finished in first place, Portola was second and Woodbridge, Buena Park and University finished tied for third in league. Woodbridge, which lost to Buena Park 22-14 Thursday night, advances to the CIF playoffs by capturing the league’s third automatic berth after winning a coin flip, officials at Woodbridge confirmed.
It’s not known when the coin flip was held.
Woodbridge’s first year coach Connor McBride, a former Woodbridge star running back, said he and some of his players attended the University vs. Katella game and were excited about the outcome.
A young Woodbridge team, led by freshman quarterback Waylan Stone, started out 0-7 with some lopsided losses early before getting back into the playoff race with two league victories.
The Warriors enter the playoffs 2-8 overall but have improved steadily.
Buena Park (5-5) is expected to apply for an at-large berth. University (4-6) could as well.
In Friday’s game, Uni forced four Katella first half turnovers to build a 21-7 halftime lead.
Katella fumbled the opening kickoff on its own 18. Five plays later, Dylan Elmer hit senior tight end Lucca Clouthier on a 4-yard touchdown pass. In the second quarter, the Trojans went on a 10-play, 62-yard drive culminating in a 13-yard TD pass from Elmer to senior wide receiver Cruz McMullens.
Katella (3-7, 0-5) responded with a 17-play, 80-yard drive finishing with a 7-yard scoring strike from Ryan Rodriguez to Brandon Baltazar to cut the lead to 14-7. Katella was in the red zone with a few seconds to go before the break when senior defensive back Joey Davis ran an interception back 89 yards to the end zone to give Uni a 21-7 halftime lead.
The Trojans seemingly had the game in hand twice in the second half. Midway through the third quarter, Katella could barely get a punt out of their own end zone after a bad snap. Two plays later, Elmer and McMullens connected on a 3-yard TD pass to go up 28-7.
Katella answered with a 10-play, 70-yard drive with Baltazar scoring on a 15-yard run to cut the lead to 28-13. With just under 7 minutes to play, the Trojans answered with Elmer’s fourth touchdown pass, this time on a 25-yard connection to senior Jake Rabold. Rabold also kicked five extra points and punted twice, both inside the 5-yard line, one a 53-yarder.
That’s when the Trojans couldn’t hold on to the ball. Despite Cruz McMullens intercepting a pass, University fumbled twice in a three-minute period, turning the ball over a total of four times in the second half. Running back Adam Haqi scored on a 7-yard run to cut the lead to 35-21 after a successful two-point convert pass from Rodriguez to Jayden Hernandez.
With 1:22 left Hernandez scored on a 25-yard scamper on the seldom seen hook-and-ladder play to reduce the lead to 35-28.
Katella had one more opportunity, but fumbled the ball on their own 37-yard line as time expired. Deandre Miller had four tackles for loss for Uni, including two sacks. Hernandez had two interceptions for Katella.
Katella outgained University, 302 yards to 181, had more first downs (21 vs. 11) and was penalized less (20 vs 83 yards). University benefited from better field position, starting two drives inside the red zone in a game featuring 13 turnovers (7 by Katella and 6 by University).
University improved its record to 4-1 at home.
—Courtesy Daryl Bogard, For OC Sports Zone
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