TUSTIN – Woodbridge didn’t want to depend on other teams to help it secure the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Coast League, so the Warriors did something about it in the second half Friday night, shutting out Beckman over the final two quarters to rally for a 30-23 come-from-behind victory at Tustin High.
Michael Pritchett threw two 18-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown passes – to Conner Lewis and Zach Kennedy – as the Warriors scored 17 unanswered points in the second half. Until then, the best offense Woodbridge had was kicker Ryan Eisendrath, who kept the Warriors within striking distance with three field goals, two from beyond 40 yards.
Woodbridge (7-3, 4-1) goes into the CIF-SS Southwest Division playoffs as the second-place entry from the PCL, and Beckman (4-6, 1-4) was officially eliminated from playoff consideration.
Beckman took a 23-13 lead by halftime, thanks to a 43-yard touchdown reception by Logan Garrick on the first series of the game, 1-yard touchdown runs by Adrian Morrow and Zach Ta and a 39-yard field goal by Sebastian Valerio.
Garrick also intercepted a pass and returned it 54 yards to the Woodbridge 1-yard line, setting up Ta’s TD, and got his fingers on a pass destined for a receiver in the end zone, forcing Woodbridge to settle for a field goal.
Woodbridge countered in the first half with field goals of 42 and 45 yards by Eisendrath and a 1-yard TD sneak by Pritchett.
