GARDEN GROVE – Yorba Linda’s Jaydyn Webb gave Garden Grove a means to rally from a 10-point deficit Friday night, fumbling the ball away on successive carries just outside the visiting Mustangs’ red zone early in the third quarter.
He made up for the miscues at the finish, carrying Yorba Linda deep into enemy territory to set up Cole Magliano’s 28-yard field goal with seven seconds to play that delivered a 20-17 triumph in a CIF Southern Section Division 8 quarterfinal.
Webb carried nine times for 46 yards as the Mustangs (10-2) drove from their 25 to Garden Grove’s 12 in the final 4½ minutes, and Magliano’s second field goal of the evening set up a semifinal rematch, at home, with top-seeded El Modena (11-1), a 42-21 winner in a nonleague meeting in late September.
“I’ll admit, I was down,” said Webb, who lost the ball at the Yorba Linda 32 and 27 with his first two second-half carries. “The coaches and my brothers, they said everyone makes mistakes, it’s how you choose to come back. And I did. This means a huge thing to us. We played our butts off, and it shows right there (on the scoreboard).”
Garden Grove (9-3), which missed the semifinals for just the second time in eight years, turned those turnovers into only three points, on an Elian Arreola field goal, but caught up with 4:46 to play behind Ruben Mendoza. The quarterback, who rushed for 130 yards and passed for 51 more, gained 14, 10 and 9 yards on a nine-play drive to set up Anthony Herrera’s 1-yard plunge.
Yorba Linda went ahead on its first possession, with Webb’s 1-yard TD wrapping an 84-yard drive, but Garden Grove answered on Mendoza’s 33-yard jaunt up the left sideline two plays into the second quarter, then quickly forced a Mustangs punt. Whatever momentum was building died when Luke Lassalle stepped in front of Brandon Coleman to intercept Mendoza’s pass in the backfield and took it 9 yards to the end zone.
Magliano made it 17-7 with a 25-yard field goal on the first half’s final play, and the defenses had the better of the second half. Yorba Linda allowed no yardage after Webb’s second fumble, but it struggled to move the ball, getting inside the Argos’ 30 just once, before a bad snap prevented a 32-yard Magliano field-goal try with 4½ minutes to go in the third quarter.
“This is special, but you know what? We’re ready to try to do bigger and better things,” said Jeff Bailey, who started the Mustangs’ program six years ago. “We’ve got to keep going. This is just one of the many big games we’re going to hopefully have here.”
