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Tustin toughness comes through in title game
ANAHEIM – Tustin junior Terence Martinez was hurt in the second quarter and was helped off the field. The Tillers are glad he didn't spend too much time on the sideline.
"I got hit in my head and I got blurred a little bit," Martinez said. "I didn't let that stop me. I got back in the game and I was fine."
With 2:28 left in the second quarter, Martinez capped a 14-play, 65-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run.
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In the fourth quarter, he tipped a Conner Manning pass that eventually was intercepted by Treshon Broughton in the dying seconds of Tustin's 35-28 CIF-SS Southwest Division title victory over El Toro at Angel Stadium.
"Mental toughness, that's all that is," Martinez said. "I wasn't going to give up on my players and I know they will not give up on me."
Giving up isn't in the vocabulary of the Tillers. Mostly, because Coach Myron Miller wouldn't allow it.
"It takes a lot to play for me," Miller said. "I ask so much of them and they make a lot of sacrifices to play for me."
The greatest sacrifice is playing on both sides of the ball, which several have to do.
"This team just doesn't fold in the second half," Miller said. "We were a second-half team and I don't know how we do it, with five-seven guys playing both ways."
Martinez rushed for 86 yards and was credited with four tackles.
Tyler Siudzinski, who earned all-county honors last year as a junior, closed his high school career with a classic Tustin performance. Siudzinski carried the ball 35 times for 180 yards and two touchdowns.
Tustin rushed for 156 yards in the first half and finished with 334 total rushing yards.
"We wouldn't be anything with the offensive line," Siudzinski said. "They took over the game and kept fighting. I know they were tired, but we were fighting for a championship."
Said Miller: "We just got stubborn with the running game and ran the ball."
The fight was evident in the fourth quarter when the Tillers faced a pair of fourth-down calls on their own end of the field.
To some easy call would have been to punt.
"We don't give the ball up," Miller said. "This is not a hard decision for me. If we can't get 2 yards, then we're going to shake their hands and give them the trophy. We don't punt the ball with 2 yards to go; that's the Tustin way.
"If you look at my history, we beat Villa Park last year (in the semifinals) with four fourth-down plays on a 25-play drive when they were ahead 7-6. I'm a line coach and I'm not going to tell my lineman that I don't believe that they can't get 2 yards. I'm never going to do it as long as I coach."
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
