After one quarter of play, No. 5 San Clemente had a seven-point lead and seemingly had all the answers to stop Oceanside’s offense.
Then the Pirates decided to throw deep.
Oceanside quarterback Max Shuffer burned the Tritons’ secondary for 426 yards and five touchdowns, which was the ultimate factor in a 51-42 Oceanside win in a nonleague game at San Clemente High.
In a thrilling back-and-forth contest, Oceanside (1-0) delivered the decisive blow with 10 seconds remaining when running back Tevin Meadows dashed 14 yards for a touchdown to give the Pirates a 49-42 lead.
San Clemente (0-1) had an opportunity, but the ball was snapped over the head of quarterback Jack Sears and out of the end zone for a game-ending safety.
“If you want to win games, you’ve got to play great defense and we didn’t do that tonight,” Tritons coach Jaime Ortiz said. “Defensively, we’ve still got work to do.”
Sears lived up to his billing as a dual-threat quarterback, accounting for five touchdowns – three passing, two rushing. He completed 16 of 27 passes for 190 yards and rushed for 146 yards on 18 carries.
San Clemente seemed to have the game under control early. Running back Austin Whitsett’s 3-yard touchdown run gave the Tritons a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Shuffer picked apart San Clemente’s secondary after that. The senior threw touchdowns of 61, 28 and 16 yards in the first half and the teams went into halftime tied, 21-21.
Sears capped an 80-yard drive with a four-yard TD run to give San Clemente a 28-21 lead to start the second half. That was the Tritons’ last lead.
Shuffer came back with touchdown passes of nine and 14 yards on the next two Oceanside possessions to give the Pirates a 35-21 lead.
Sears willed the Tritons back in. The Duke commit twice tied the score, with a 27-yard pass to Chris Kane and a 29-yard strike to Brandon Reaves.
On the winning drive, Shuffer converted an 8-yard pass to Jake Gerardi on fourth down, which led to Meadows’ score.
Contact the writer: npercy@scng.com
