HUNTINGTON BEACH – Tesoro coach Matt Poston had watched the film. He knew there might be a hole on a possible trick play. But even he had to acknowledge he wasn’t necessarily thinking touchdown. “I was thinking keep the drive alive,” he said.
Facing fourth-and-2 on Tesoro’s own 37-yard line in the third quarter, and with the Titans offense having disappeared after a touchdown on its opening drive, Poston called for a fake punt.
It didn’t just keep the drive alive. It went 63 yards for a touchdown, as Chase Petersen found Joe Morenc to give the Titans a lead they didn’t relinquish in a 38-20 win at Huntington Beach on Friday night.
“At halftime it could have gone either way,” Poston said. “I was proud of the kids for coming out and executing in the second half. That (fake punt) was a really good play for us. It got all the momentum going with us.”
Before the fake punt, Tesoro (2-1) had punted on four straight possessions. Huntington Beach (1-2), meanwhile, outgained the Titans 169 yards to 38 in the first half and overcame a 14-0 deficit to tie it at the half.
The fake punt, however, flipped the script. While Huntington made it 21-20 on a Derek Thomas touchdown, Tesoro went on a 17-0 run in a span of 3:58 in the fourth quarter, as Kenny Ramchandani returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown, Petersen ran for a score and Joe Rizkallah kicked a 36-yard field goal.
“We have a lot of young kids playing for us and they’re learning on the job against good teams like Edison, La Habra, Huntington,” Poston said. “We do some things really, really well and sometimes we don’t. For them to come out in the second half and play well is big.”
“We have a lot of young kids playing for us and they’re learning on the job,” Poston said. “… For them to come out in the second half and play well is big.”
