COSTA MESA – It was a running-game runaway.
Garden Grove rushed for 310 yards and five touchdowns and the Argonauts defense posted another shutout in their 35-0 win over Rancho Alamitos in the CIF-Southern Section Southern Division championship game Saturday at Orange Coast College.
The win ended two years of frustration for the Argonauts. They lost in the Southern Division finals in 2012 and ’13.
“We’d come up short two years in a row,” said Garden Grove senior defensive back Reily Hoalton, who had three interceptions. “This is an incredible feeling.”
Garden Grove won its second CIF football championship over the past five years. They won the Southern Division title in 2010.
Saturday’s game was an all-Garden Grove affair. Rancho Alamitos and Garden Grove play in the Garden Grove League and both schools are in the city of Garden Grove.
Rancho Alamitos finished 11-3. Garden Grove finished 13-1 … although Argonauts coach Ricardo Cepeda said he hopes his team gets selected to play in the CIF state regionals that will be played next week. Those selections will be announced Sunday.
CalHiSports.com’s rankings of bowl-eligible teams had Garden Grove at No. 6 in Division 3 South.
“We want to play next week,” Cepeda said. “We think we’ve got a shot.”
Argonauts senior quarterback Alejandro Ceja rushed for 125 yards and two touchdowns. Jordan Antunez rushed for 99 yards and one touchdown. Joseph Camarillo rushed for 66 yards and two touchdowns.
Ceja gave the credit to the Garden Grove offensive line.
“This whole week, oh my God, their dedication was like no other,” said Ceja, who scored on runs of 20 and 21 yards. “They pushed the blocking sled like 100 yards every time.”
The six blocks of Garden Grove granite: guards Gerardo Rodarte and Ricardo Aguilar, tackles Juan Ossa and Matthew Goldowski, center Marcos Horduno and tight end Nathan Garcia.
Garden Grove ran 31 running plays before it attempted its first pass. Fifty-one of their 56 plays were running plays.
The Argonauts also had a shutout last week, a 30-0 win over El Modena in the semifinals. They shut out Calvary Chapel, 49-0 in the first round of the playoffs. Garden Grove shut out Westminster, 21-0, in the season opener and had a shutout win over Bolsa Grande in a Garden Grove League game.
Rancho Alamitos quarterback Nick Brown, who set the Orange County single-season record for touchdown passes with 52, was held to 130 passing yards. He had been averaging 305 passing yards a game.
Hoalton had two interceptions in the semifinals, including one returned for a touchdown.
Garden Grove had 204 yards rushing and that 1 yard passing in the first half, at the end of which the Argonauts had a 28-0 lead.
The Argonauts scored on their second possession. Joseph Camarillo got the touchdown on a 9-yard run around left end for a 7-0 lead.
Camrillo scored on an 8-yard run on Garden Grove’s following possession to make it 14-0.
Garden Grove linebacker Daniel Orellana recovered a Rancho Alamitos fumble at the Rancho 40-yard line to set up the next Argonauts touchdown. Ceja ran it in from 21 yards out to push the lead to 21-0.
Hoalton then got his first interception. He made a leaping grab at the Garden Grove 35-yard line. His weaving, twisting return ended at the Rancho Alamitos 1-yard line, but an illegal block penalty on the return moved the Argonauts back to the Rancho 40.
Five plays later – all running plays, of course – Antunez scored on a 7-yard run to increase the Argonauts’ lead to 28-0.
Rancho Alamitos put together its best first-half scoring chance, a drive that started at the Vaqueros’ 20-yard line and got to the Garden Grove 9. Hoalton came up with his second interception, grabbing a deflected pass 2 yards deep in the end zone with 1:54 left in the half. He returned it to the Garden Grove 34, but the Argonauts did not have time to convert that turnover into points.
Ceja scored on a 20-yard run, with the help of a fine outside block by receiver Austen Christian, in the third quarter to conclude the scoring.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
