Recap
Santee, CA — The Vista Longhorns beat the Ranch Hill Titans Blue (RHTB) 33-19 in a matchup of two teams fighting for their first play-off win.
Vista came out strong by intercepting Titans at the one-yard line and returning the ball 44 yards. Vista's offense took over to complete a 5-play 55-yard drive that set the visiting Titans back on their heels.
The Titans came back to even the score at 6 to close out the 1st quarter of play. With the score knotted up at 6 each Vista offense again benefitted from the strong play of its defense. The Longhorn defense forced a turnover on downs which gave the offense excellent field position at the Titans 48-yard line with about 3 minutes to go in the half.
The Longhorns scored with 40 seconds remaining in the half to take a 13-6 lead. But as has been the case in several games this year, the defense failed to close out the half and allowed the Titans to close the gap to 13-12 at half.
Vista received the 2nd half kick but a poor exchange between the QB and Center allowed the Titans to gain possession at their 38-yard line. Vista's defense, getting stronger as the game progressed, came through yet again and forced another turnover on downs inside of Titans territory.
Vista's offense got to work and took advantage of the game while taking a good amount of time off of the clock. The drive ended with Vista taking a 20-12 lead as the 3rd quarter came to a close.
The Titans immediately mounted a comeback to close the scoring gap at 20-19 Longhorns early in the 4th quarter.
With about 7 minutes to go in the game the Longhorns were able to put together a 5-play scoring drive that put more distance between them and a hungry Titans team. Making the score 26-19 with less than 4 minutes to go in the game.
The Longhorns, knowing that one more score would put the game out of reach, used a variety of formations to keep the Titans off balance and scored with less than 2 minutes in the game to make the score 33-19.
The Titan's, desperate for a quick score, completed a pass to the TE only to have the ball stripped away by the Vista defender. The defender returned the ball 29 yards. In a moment of hilarious fun as the defender, being dragged down by a number of Titan players, lost his pants. The play caused an eruption of laughter from the crowd and players on the Vista sideline.
For good measure, the Longhorns intercepted the Titan's with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game to secure the playoff win.
Next up for the Longhorns is the 5-2 Coronado Islanders. @ Coronado High School on Saturday October 15th at 2pm.
The game is rated a "toss-up" by many, but Vista is looking to ride the wave that they have created to victory once again. We are certain the Islanders will have a thing or 2 to say about the outcome.
The game vs Ranch Hills can be viewed in its entirety @ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_PJELHpD9AbqBrsAIQ-gGkXLa-maVItV.