Turnovers and penalties end McClymonds’ state title streak

NORWALK, Los Angeles County — A noon start. Four turnovers. Twelve penalties.

Maybe the first fact has nothing to do with the other two. Maybe it was simply that Pacifica-Oxnard was a superior team than McClymonds-Oakland on Saturday in the CIF Division 2-A championship football game at Cerritos College.

The score certainly indicated as much in a 34-6 Pacifica win that thwarted Mack’s hopes of a fourth straight state championship.

RJ Maria threw for 185 yards and four touchdowns to four different receivers and Fresno State-bound running back Malik Sherrod rushed 29 times for 124 yards as the Tritons finished 15-1. McClymonds, which avoided a shutout with an Arrion Hughes 30-yard scoop and score, finished 11-1.

McClymonds coach Michael Peters, who late in the season was concerned the CIF would place the Warriors too high in their 14-division competitive equity format, said none of that mattered on Saturday.

“We just needed to play better,” he kept saying afterward. “My hat’s off to (Pacifica). … But to me they weren’t that much better than us. We just had a lot of mistakes.”

But clearly the Tritons were better on this day without the mistakes. They held huge advantages in yardage (411-112) and first downs (25-7).

Then again, much was made afterward about the fact that Pacifica is a school with more than 3,000 students. McClymonds is at 360. Pacifica’s roster boasted 59 players, McClymonds’ 29. Peters, whose team won Division 5-A, 5-AA and 4-A titles, wasn’t offering excuses even after skipping a division up to the D2 level (Open, followed by D1 is most competitive division, D7 is least competitive).

“We play anyone, anywhere, don’t make no difference,” Peters said. “They could put us in Open Division, it doesn’t matter. We don’t...