TUSTIN – Thirteen was again the lucky number in the crosstown rivalry between Foothill and Tustin.
That’s the number of points Foothill put on the scoreboard for the second consecutive season against the Tillers, and once again it was enough, only Friday night the Knights added a shutout in winning 13-0 at Tustin High.
Foothill quarterback Bobby Garcia ran for both touchdowns – one late in the second quarter and the other late in the fourth – and finished with 73 yards on 22 carries, as well as completing 7 of 16 passes for 80 yards.
“He’s probably our best athlete, so you better use him or you lose him,” Foothill coach Doug Case said of Garcia, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound senior.
The Knights didn’t record a first down until the first play of their fourth drive, when Garcia hit David Lopez with a 22-yard pass with just over eight minutes left in the half. Garcia then scrambled 31 yards for a touchdown on the next play, but it was called back on a holding penalty.
Garcia was taken down for a 1-yard loss two plays later, which would have set up third-and-11, but the Tillers were called for a personal foul after the tackle, and Foothill was awarded a first down at Tustin’s 17. The Knights pounded the ball inside the 1, and Garcia then dove into the end zone on fourth down.
“We were struggling with them up front offensively, so we decided to spread them out and it really helped us,” Case said.
Even though Tustin was winning the battle of field position early, the Tillers lost one of their key offensive weapons when wingback Derek Soto limped off the field after his first carry. Soto, who missed most of the past two seasons with ankle injuries, rushed for 111 yards in last week’s 39-20 win against Compton Dominguez.
His absence significantly added to the workload for fellow wingback KC Carr, who rushed for 233 yards on 12 carries against Dominguez. Carr, listed at 6-foot, 164 pounds, carried the ball 14 times in the first half, but only once for more than 6 yards. He finished with 73 yards on 22 carries and also limped off the field late in the game.
The Knights produced their first shutout since beating Esperanza 17-0 in November 2014.
