McClymonds’ bid for another state football title ends in miscues, tears
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NORWALK — The numbers had not mattered all season for McClymonds — enrollment, roster size, level of competition. The Warriors beat two teams that would play for section championships, overwhelmed the Oakland Athletic League once again and breezed through a Northern regional last week.
The California Interscholastic Federation thought enough of the Oakland powerhouse that it elevated Mack four divisions from last season.
Saturday, the Warriors met their match.
It was not pretty for anyone in orange pants and white jerseys at Cerritos College as Pacifica quickly sucked the air of Mack and went on to a 34-6 victory in the Division 2-A championship.
The afternoon ended with some players distraught as coaches, including head coach Michael Peters, tried to console them.
“Some of the seniors, it’s their last time playing,” Peters said. “It hurts everybody. It hurts me. We didn’t drive down here to play like this. This was our worst game of the year. Worst game in two years.”
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Pacifica gassed its Northern California opponent with a no-huddle, fast-paced offense and swarming defense, taking control in the first quarter as the Oxnard school’s student section voiced its approval with old-school chants that got louder with each electrifying play.
The up-tempo pace left McClymonds scrambling to avoid too-many-players-on-the-field infractions — there were a few — and looking up at the scoreboard all afternoon.
Kyrie Wilson got his day started with a 14-yard touchdown reception from RJ Maria for a 7-0 lead with 5:08 left in the first quarter.
Three plays later, Wilson picked off a pass — the first of his two interceptions — to set up another touchdown, Maria’s 4-yard pass to Nohl Williams that made it 14-0.
“It was definitely surprising,” said defensive back Edward Woods, who committed to Arizona State on Monday. “We came into the game today and everybody was fired up. Energy. Ready to play. Then we got on the field and the clock started rolling and we just went downhill.”
Mack, which suited up 30 players and has fewer than 400 students, had 5 yards of offense in the first quarter. Pacifica, with a roster of nearly 60 and a school enrollment of more than 3,000, had 126 yards in the opening period.
Pacifica led 14-0 after 12 minutes and 17-0 at halftime. The Tritons buried Mack in the third quarter with 17 more points for a 34-0 advantage.
“We started off with too many penalties,” Peters said. “Might have been too big a stage for us. Offensively we didn’t have a great game. Defensively, I think we played well enough for us to be in it. But we couldn’t do nothing on offense. The hat goes off to them.”
Peters said the division did not matter. His team should have played better.
“We’ll be back next year,” Peters said. “They weren’t that much better than us, to me. We just had a lot of mistakes.”
Mack’s placement in 2-A — up from 4-A last season — was more a credit to its success than the CIF making a misjudgment.
The Warriors won consecutive state championships in divisions 5-A, 5-AA and 4-AA the past three years and beat traditional North Coast Section powers Marin Catholic and Campolindo this season before a 10th straight perfect run through the OAL.
Mack (11-1) routed Manteca 46-13 to get to Cerritos and was projected to lose Saturday by calpreps.com’s computer by just three points.
The computer might need a reboot.
Mack avoided the shutout when Arrion Hughes ran to the end zone on a 30-yard scoop and score with 4:41 left in the game.
“We weren’t concerned,” Peters said. “I have seen my team play much better than that. The first afternoon game, we don’t play fast coming out at 12 o’clock.”
When it ended, tears flowed on the Mack sideline while Pacifica celebrated the end to a 15-1 season.
The Tritons finished with 411 yards to Mack’s 112 and intercepted four passes.
“It’s crazy,” said Pacifica linebacker Caleb Mccullough, who will be a teammate with Woods at Arizona State. “If you asked me four years ago would I think that I was going to win a state championship, I would’ve never thought.”