Oxnard, CA — What a difference three weeks can make. Gifted with a rare second chance by the CIF-Southern Section’s new playoff structure, the Pacifica High football team took advantage Friday night with a 34-7 win over Channel League foe Rio Mesa in the first round of the Division 4 playoffs. Three weeks after the Spartans rolled to a 24-7 victory at Pacifica in Channel League play, and just a week after the Oxnard schools shared the league title with Santa Barbara, the Tritons dominated the rematch to earn the program’s first playoff win since the 2019 CIF-State Division 2A championship bowl. “That doesn’t happen very often in life, where you have a quick turnaround to redeem yourself, get a mulligan or a do-over, whatever you want to call it,” Pacifica coach Mike Moon said. “They’re a good football team and they’re physical. It was good for us to see that we could play physical against a physical team.” Sophomore Dominic Duran completed 15 of 25 passes for 221 yards and a touchdown, junior Josh Joyner carried the ball 26 times for 160 yards and a touchdown, and senior Tommy Alfaro caught six passes for 78 yards and a score as Pacifica (9-2) advanced to this Friday's quarterfinals, when Los Angeles-Cathedral (9-2) will visit. “We came up short a little bit the last game,” senior linebacker Jordan Whitney said. “We just weren’t locked in as a team. We didn’t play as a team. We weren’t a unit. “Knowing we were playing them, getting a chance at redemption, I feel like it gave us that good energy. Everybody was locked in this week.” Three weeks after the Spartans rolled up 231 yards rushing in a 24-7 win on the same field, Pacifica limited Rio Mesa to 46 yards rushing. “It looked like a reversal,” head coach Jim Bittner said. “They came out and hit us in the face.” Rio Mesa finished with just seven points and less than 200 yards of total offense. “They had a good plan coming out,” Bittner said. “They did a good job stopping the run early. We were completely out of sync, offensively. Defensively, we played well, but they still got their couple (scores).” Despite the previous result, Moon liked the position his team was in this week. While the Tritons freely made adjustments on both sides of the ball, the Spartans were left to ponder whether to stick with their previously winning formula. “I felt like we had the advantage,” Moon said. “From a coaching perspective, it was almost easier to be in our spot.” He showed his team the “humbling” film of the previous loss — from start to finish — twice. “A lot of what happened in the first game was we just did not play hard,” Moon said. "That’s not something that we do here. So it was really a personal challenge to them.” Bittner described the opposite forces on his sideline. “I think our guys came into this game feeling pretty good about themselves,” Bittner said. “And their guys came out with a little fire underneath them, and felt like they had something to prove. Where it was the reverse of that the last time we played them. “It was disappointing. But that’s a pretty good football team.” Pacifica opened the scoring with 5:13 left in the first quarter. Duran converted a third-and-6 with an 18-yard slant to Savion Taylor, which set up Philip Kim’s 3-yard TD run. After a season of sharing the quarterback job with fellow sophomore Tagg Harrison, who started most of games in the regular season, Duran shined in his first playoff start. “We’ve got two guys who can throw the rock,” said Pacifica offensive coordinator Eric Diaz. “They battle every week and get even reps. I just thought Dom gave us the better chance to win this week. “We’re in a good situation. We have two guys who can go in at any moment and get the job done.” Rio Mesa took advantage of a special teams mistake to tie the score on J’Lin Wingo’s 3-yard TD run with 2:19 left in the quarter, four plays after a low punt snap set up the Spartans on the Pacifica 26. The Tritons responded with the next 27 points. Duran’s 9-yard TD pass to Alfaro completed a six-play, 69-yard drive less than two minutes later. Pacifica doubled its lead on Joyner’s 18-yard TD run around left end with 3:39 left in the half and Derrick Mejia’s late 30-yard field goal pushed the Tritons’ lead to 24-7 at the half. “It felt good carrying the load again and showing I could do it,” Joyner said, “gaining yards and helping my team get the win.” Another Mejia field goal, after Rio Mesa stopped a Pacifica drive at its 4-yard line, pushed the lead to 27-7 with 4:37 left in the third quarter. Jamari Ransom’s 25-yard interception return for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter put the game away for Pacifica. While Moon enjoyed his team’s sudden underdog position, Bitter did not appreciate having to play a league foe in the first round of the playoffs, especially on the road again. “Those things shouldn’t happen,” Bittner said. “Unfortunately, they did. There was nothing I could do about it, so we just had to get ready and go play. Unfortunately, we just didn’t make the plays.” “Up front, they played a little bit better than us this game. They got after it.”