GARDEN GROVE – The El Modena football team made an adjustment on the fly and out of necessity Thursday night, and it paid off.
Locked in a 6-6 tie with Santiago in the second quarter of their second-round CIF-SS Southern Division playoff game, the Vanguards saw starting quarterback Garrett Gramm get pushed out of bounds awkwardly, so much so that he needed to be removed from the game.
The call came in quickly from the sideline – running back Kenneth Lamb took over at quarterback in El Modena’s “Wildcat” formation.
On the next play, Lamb handed the ball to Dillon Keefe, who broke through the Santiago line and broke the tie with a 44-yard touchdown run. On the Vanguards’ next possession, it was Lamb who pulled off a big run out of the formation to score from 65 yards out.
The outburst sparked a barrage of 35 consecutive points for El Modena, and the Vanguards cruised to a 41-20 victory at Garden Grove High.
Gramm returned in the second quarter, Lamb finished with a game-high 161 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries, and Keefe had 103 yards and two scores on nine carries.
“These kids have gone through so much this year – we’ve had three ACL (injuries), a kid with a heart (problem) – and they’re so resillient,” El Modena coach Ed Drazanek said. “We preach, ‘Next man up, next man up.’”
The Vanguards (5-7) also picked it up on defense after allowing field goals on Santiago’s first two drives.
El Modena limited the Cavaliers (8-4) to 70 total yards in the first half, and Santiago didn’t score again until senior running back Aaron Ledezma outran the Vanguards defense on a 78-yard run with 4:23 remaining in the third quarter.
Ledezma finished with a team-high 129 rushing yards on 16 carries.
“They beat us down, got more physical and got a push up front,” Santiago coach Brandon Croft said. “Usually, all year, I’d say, if you like to run the ball, I like my chances against your squad, but they executed better than we did.”
El Modena, which gained entry into the playoffs for the first time in 14 years with an at-large bid after a 3-7 regular season, will face Brea Olinda or Garden Grove, who play Friday night, in the semifinals next week.
“We had some tough, tough losses this year, and the powers that be looked at those close games and the teams we were playing and made the decision – let’s see what they’ve got,” Drazanek said.
Contact the writer: jbalan@ocregister.com
