Granite Hills holds off Mount Miguel in heated league game

EL CAJON – Davion Williams scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 4-yard run 40 seconds into the fourth quarter and Zachary Benitez threw a 12-yard scoring pass to Noah Walker with 4:32 left to lift No. 6 Granite Hills to a 29-16 win against No. 9 Mount Miguel on Friday night in a heated Grossmont Hills League game.

The game ended with players from both teams having to be separated.

“Mount Miguel, they really like to talk a lot,” said Benitez, who was in the center of the scrum at game’s end. “I grew up playing with most of them, so it’s obviously fun playing against them. It’s a great team and it was a great game.”

The Eagles (4-3, 1-0), overcame several penalties to snap a three-game losing streak.

“We’re playing for a league championship and it’s going to get a little extra … these kids have all played with each other growing up, so there’s always that fun piece of it,” Granite Hills coach Kellan Cobbs said. “Not usually this chippy.

“Obviously, we’ve got to take care of business the next three weeks but on paper this was one of the big ones,” Cobbs added.

Mount Miguel (5-3, 1-1) took a 16-14 lead on Clint Ettelman’s 28-yard field goal with 5:52 to go in the third quarter.

Benitez then led a 65-yard scoring drive capped by Williams’ touchdown run with 11:20 to go, followed by his two-point conversion pass to Isaiah Rodriguez to make it 22-16.

The Eagles had two takeaways in a four-minute span late in the game to help put it away.

Jesse Wilhite intercepted Jeremiah Loper at the Eagles 24 with 8:28 to go to set up a drive capped by Benitez’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Walker with 4:32 left.

Kali Young recovered a fumble with 3:48 to go.

“It’s good to get back on track,” said Cobbs, whose Eagles had lost to Mission Hills, Los Alamitos and Cathedral Catholic. “We’ve played a lot of good football teams. We tested ourselves a lot early in the season. We’ve got a long way to go if we’re going to win a championship.”

Mount Miguel had a 13-7 lead after a chippy first half with several penalties and turnovers.

The Matadors took the lead after benefitting from three personal fouls on a 90-yard drive that started with 1:28 left in the second quarter and was capped by Loper’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Gianni Porfilio with 33 seconds left. The kick failed.

Loper scored on a 3-yard run late in the first quarter on a drive that was kept alive by two Eagles penalties inside the 5-yard line.

Benitez then moved the Eagles to the Matadors’ 5-yard line before his pass into a crowd of defenders was intercepted by Angelo Fanua. The Matadors punted after the ensuing drive stalled but got the ball back when LaJustice Sutton recovered a fumble.

The Matadors were stuffed on fourth down and the Eagles took over on their 30. On third-and-5 from the Matadors 44, Benitez was flushed, stepped up in the pocket and hit Rocket Demery in stride to tie it at 7.

Gage Spalding scored on a 9-yard run for the Eagles midway through the third quarter.