Tustin pounds out title victory over El Toro

ANAHEIM – Tustin football coach Myron Miller doesn't care about conventional wisdom and fancy offenses.

All Miller wants to do is kick some butt and take some names. Miller is old school and stubborn and his players have adopted that mentality.

Tustin used its ground-and-pound style of offense and physical defense to rough up high-flying El Toro and defeat the Chargers, 35-28, in the CIF-SS Southwest Division championship game in front of 8,091 on Saturday afternoon at Angel Stadium.

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Tustin's double-wing offense put together monster drives that gobbled up the clock and the Tillers were 5 for 5 on fourth-down conversions. Two of those fourth-down conversions were deep in Tustin territory.

"I ain't punting," Miller said. "We don't punt the ball with 2 yards to go. We don't do it at any time no matter what the situation is. I'm not giving them the ball."

Tustin was making its third appearance in the finals in the past four seasons, but this was the Tillers' first championship since 1948.

"I just told our kids they didn't win or lose any of those games a long time ago," Miller said. "We gotta take care of our year. We had a chance to win a championship and that's all this year was about."

It looked as if El Toro (12-2), which was playing in its first finals since winning the Division II title in 1995, was going to blow out Tustin when the Chargers and their no-huddle offense, led by quarterback Conner Manning, got out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter.

Manning, who broke the county's single-season passing record last week and finished the season with 4,236 yards, threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Dominic Collins, a 17-yard scoring strike to Blake Murphy and a 20-yard touchdown pass to Cody White in the first quarter. That gave him 40 touchdowns on the season, tying Jason Whieldon (Orange Lutheran, 1999) for the county's single-season touchdown passes record. He broke the record in the fourth quarter.

"We were down 21-7 and we were on our backs," Miller said. "We've come from behind in the last three games."

Tustin (11-3) began mounting its comeback when it took over with 11:03 left in the first half. The Tillers marched 88 yards in 17 plays on a classic Tustin drive.

All but two of the plays were on the ground. Landon West picked off Tustin quarterback Quinnton Roberson on a rare pass, but he fumbled and Tyler Siudzinski recovered for Tustin. The Tillers fumbled twice more on the drive, but recovered both. Terence Martinez, who had a 45-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, capped it with a 5-yard touchdown run. The drive took nearly nine minutes off the clock and pulled the Tillers to within seven points of the Chargers.

Tustin received the opening kickoff of the second half and put together a 13-play, 80-yard drive with Siudzinski scoring on a 1-yard touchdown to tie it, 21-21. That drive took nearly six minutes off the clock.

"It's biology," El Toro coach Rob Frith said of Tustin's offensive line. "There guys are much bigger than everybody else for the most part, and when you get that much mass going in one direction it's tough to stop."

Before El Toro could catch its breath, Edward Tandy picked off Manning and scored on a 52-yard return to give the Tillers a 28-21 lead.

El Toro went three-and-out on its next possession. Tustin took over and went 59 yards in 13 plays. Siudzinski, Tandy and Martinez took turns pounding away at the Chargers. Siudzinski's 10-yard touchdown gave Tustin a 35-21 cushion with 9:04 remaining.

"Our coach believes in us to drive the ball," Tandy said. "We just really tried to put it down their throat, just keep moving the ball and eat the clock up."

El Toro was getting desparate and was forced to go for it on fourth-and-2 from its 33. Manning connected with Blake Murphy for 37 yards. On fourth-and-9, Manning hit White for a 29-yard touchdown to cut it to 35-28 and break the county's single-season touchdown passes record.

Tustin took over with 6:36 remaining, but Roberson fumbled and El Toro's Andy Castaneda recovered at Tustin's 48 with 3:38 remaining.

Manning was trying to find Murphy on a third-and-10 play from Tustin 30. Martinez tipped the pass and Treshon Broughton got the interception.

All Tustin had to do was run out the final 2:37, but the Tillers were faced with a fourth-and-2 from their own 23. Miller called a timeout to tell his players they were going for it. Tandy got the call and smashed ahead for 3 yards and a first down.

Game over.

Contact the writer: carias@ocregister.com