Rancho Alamitos wins fight for playoff spot
GARDEN GROVE - Mike Frank threw for four touchdowns and ran for three more to push Rancho Alamitos into the CIF-SS Southern Division playoffs Friday night with a 51-28 victory over La Quinta at Bolsa Grande High.
The victory clinched the Garden Grove League’s third playoff spot for Rancho Alamitos (6-4, 3-2) and eliminated La Quinta (2-8, 2-3) from postseason contention.
The game began at a breathless pace — Frank found Juan Cruz for a 65-yard touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage — and never let up. La Quinta answered with a series of long runs by Nicky Luu, capped by a 43-yard scoring burst, and the track meet was on.
Frank (15 of 22, 303 yards) added a pair of touchdown tosses to Miguel Carrion and ran 1 and 19 yards for touchdowns before the half, lifting the Vaqueros to a 35-14 lead.
The Aztecs mirrored Rancho’s start to the game after the second-half kickoff, needing only three plays — the last a 66-yard touchdown run by Daniel Cantoran — to cut the deficit to 35-21. But Frank had the answer again, engineering a 12-play, 65-yard march capped by his 3-yard quarterback draw for a score.
La Quinta’s Yifu Chen then found the end zone for his second short rushing touchdown on the night, but a 25-yard Claro Manqueros field goal and Frank’s final touchdown pass iced the game and assured Rancho’s season continuing at least one more week.
“We started our playoff run three weeks ago after we lost to Garden Grove and Santiago, so we’ll look to keep this going,” Rancho coach Mike Enright said.
