High school football: Vista Murrieta breaks open close game and defeats Santiago, 38-17

After playing to a halftime draw, Vista Murrieta scored 21 second-half points and defeated Santiago of Corona, 38-17, in the first-round playoff game Friday.

The Broncos, 11-0, shut down Santiago in the second half and took advantage of several mistakes by the Sharks, 5-6, which had trouble keeping Vista Murrieta’s defense off quarterback Brandon Connette, who was knocked out of the contest after being sacked late in the third quarter.

“We did the same things in the second half and we just did them better,” said Vista Murrieta coach Coley Candaele.

Vista Murrieta opened the scoring on the opening drive on a 37-yard field goal by Tyler Rausa.

Santiago then went 68 yards on its opening possession and scored on a 42-yard touchdown pass from a scrambling Connette to Miles O’Dell, who found himself behind the Broncos defense. The touchdown came on a fourth-down play.

Vista Murrieta took back the lead on a 2-yard run by Eddie Lackey just before the end of the first quarter.

After a Connette interception, a Vista Murrieta drive stalled and the Sharks took back the lead on a 52-yard touchdown pass. Connette’s scrambling ability gave him extra time to find the open man who had made his way behind the Vista Murrieta defense. Santiago led 14-10.

“We were a bit tentative,” Candaele said of the Broncos defense against Connette. “We were worried about his ability to get away. He is a good athlete.”

Santiago extended its lead to 17-10 on a 37-yard field goal by Ryan Felix with 3:22 left before halftime.

With about a minute left in the first half, Vista Murrieta tied the score on a 14-yard pass from Derrick Brown to Adam Butcher.

Brown then tossed three second-half touchdown passes as the Broncos took advantage of a short punt, blocked punt and Santiago turnover.

Candaele said the Vista Murrieta special teams continued its strong play, helping the Broncos break open a close game.

“That has been our trademark all year,” he said.

The Vista Murrieta defense shut down the Santiago offense, holding the Sharks to a handful of first downs and harassing Connette, who suffered a head injury after being sacked.

Tags: santiago high school, SWRNN, vista murrieta high school

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Football, High School, Local News, News, Sports . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.