CARLSBAD — Offense wins games. Defense wins championships.
Friday night in front of a soldout crowd of more than 4,000, Cathedral Catholic High School used a dominant defense to beat host La Costa Canyon 27-6 in a CIF San Diego Section Open Division semifinal.
The win sets up a championship game next Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium against Western League foe Lincoln.
The third-seeded Dons (9-2) held No. 2-seeded La Costa Canyon (10-1) to minus-5 yards rushing. Mavericks quarterback Quinn Roth completed 22 of 42 passes but was under pressure the entire game.
Our defense did good, Cathedral Catholic coach Sean Doyle said.
La Costa Canyon scored first on a 12-yard pass from Roth to Coby Herman near the end of the first quarter. But the PAT was missed.
The rest of the half belonged to Cathedral Catholic. The Dons took advantage of a muffed punt, recovering the ball at the LCC 24-yard line. Three plays later, Honor Faalave-Johnson skirted right end and scored from nine yards out.
LCC couldnt take advantage after recovering a Cathedral Catholic fumble on what appeared to be confusion on the snap.
The Mavericks took over at the Dons 28, got to the 11, but Roth was sacked on back-to-back pass plays and turned the ball over on downs with 2:22 to play in the half.
After a pair of incompletions, Palmer found Hunter Harrington wide open behind the defense for a 78-yard touchdown pass.
After two more sacks of Roth, Cathedral Catholic had another chance to score, driving from its 27 to the Mavericks 18 before Dakota Colebourn made a diving interception near the goalline.
LCC ran the ball just once in the second half; Roth threw 30 times.
Our plan was to make them one-dimensional, said Cathedral Catholics 6-foot-3, 270-pound defensive lineman Brody Harriff. We wanted to make it so they couldnt run.
The Mavericks had a hard time running the ball in the first half, but were hamstrung in the second half when Herman banged his head hard on the turf on an incomplete pass in the end zone on the first drive of the second half.
We needed to contain the quarterback in the pocket, Harriff said. We needed to make him move around. We knew we were more physical than they were.This is the time of the season all the summer weight work pays off. We had the strength advantage to get the job done.
The game was still in doubt early in the fourth quarter, but Cathedral Catholic held LCC on downs at the Dons 3. Cathedral Catholic then drove 97 yards on 13 plays — 12 of them runs — to score and kill nearly seven minutes off the clock. The drive was aided by an offside call on LCC on a fourth-and-4 at the LCC 44.
While LCC had a hard time running the ball, Cathedral Catholic rushed 35 times for 227 yards. Willie Flores had 10 carries for 105 yards and a 25-yard TD run.Faalave-Johnson carried four times for 38 yards and two scores.
Dons quarterback Brady Palmer completed 11 of 18 passes for 207 yards. Harrington had four catches for 105 yards. Lennox Marcucci had seven catches for 87 yards for La Costa Canyon.
Cathedral Catholic 27, La Costa Canyon 6
Cathedral Catholic 0 14 6 7 27
La Costa Canyon 6 0 0 0 6
LCC — Herman 12 pass from Roth (kick failed)
CC — Faalave-Johnson 12 run (Eastlack kick)
CC — Harrington 78 pass from Palmer (Eastlack kick)
CC — Flores 25 run (kick failed)
CC — Faalave-Johnson 17 run (Eastlack kick)