PHOTO BY ANGEL FRANCO
Gahr High junior quarterback Roman Acosta was the star of the night against Artesia High in last Friday’s CIF-Southern Section Division 13 quarterfinal game. Acosta completed 10 of 15 passes for 202 yards and four touchdowns and rushed nine times for 140 yards with another touchdown as the Gladiators defeated the Pioneers 34-7.
November 18, 2024
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
Sometimes when you get to the playoffs, you’ll see some funky matchups, record-wise, that prognosticators will tend to favor the team with the better record. Case in point-one CIF-Southern Section Division 13 quarterfinal game pitted top-ranked Gahr High, which went 5-5 in the regular season, visiting Artesia High, which went 8-2 prior to the playoffs, and began the season on a five-game winning streak.
But like people always say, that’s why you play the games, and for the first time since 2017, the two ABC Unified School District rivals faced each other. And for the fifth straight time in the series, the Gladiators prevailed behind Roman Acosta’s running and passing. The junior quarterback posted a season-high 202 passing yards and four touchdowns while rushing for a career-high 140 yards and another touchdown as Gahr slammed the Pioneers 34-7 on a chilly 56 degree night last Friday at Atkins Stadium. Gahr, behind the tutelage of head coach Greg Marshall, in his 22nd season with the blue and gold, advances to the semifinals where it will host Anaheim High on Friday. It will be Gahr’s second trip ever to the semifinals, but first since 2007.
“It’s about time,” said Marshall. “It’s funny because you get there early in your career and [it’s like], ‘oh, we’re going to go back’. So you have to [enjoy] the time that you have because it’s not easy; it’s definitely not easy.
PHOTO BY ANGEL FRANCO.
Gahr High junior Jai’Dyn Backus (#15) is tackled by Artesia High sophomore linebacker Robert Garcia after a three-yard gain on third down in the fourth quarter of last Friday’s CIF-Southern Section Division 13 quarterfinal game. Three plays later, Gahr scored its last touchdown in a 34-7 victory.
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“It’s good to see the alumni guys back,” he continued. “They’re happy for us; I’m happy for the guys to rebound after the slow start to the season. Personally, it’s all about the kids. I’m proud of them; they’re doing a great job.”
Acosta wasted little time making his presence known as he gained 28 yards on the first play of the game. Seven plays later, he tossed a short two-yard pass to senior Evan Lucena for the first touchdown of the contest. With the touchdown pass, another completion and his only run of the stanza, he had already compiled 65 yards through the first 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, the Gahr defense was making its presence known as well, holding the Pioneers to 13 yards on six plays as they punted on their first two possessions. But on the third possession, junior running back Josue Flores, with the help of his offensive linemen, muscled his way to the endzone for an eight-yard score and a tie game with 8:26 left in the half.
After that, Artesia (9-3) was able to run six more plays and by halftime, had gained 77 yards on only 15 plays in just over seven minutes of action.
“We just couldn’t get it going, and when we were not making mistakes, they were making good plays, even though it was a couple of yard gains,” said Artesia head coach Connor Crook. “Then we would break one and we would fumble, or something bad would happen or whatever. It was one of those nights where anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, it seemed like.”
The first mistake he was talking about came with 3:42 left in the half as senior quarterback Charlie Lopez picked up a first down after a 21-yard run. But he fumbled at the Gahr 39-yard line, with senior linebacker Isaiah Portillo recovering the pigskin. While the Gladiators didn’t score on the ensuing possession, the fumble prevented Artesia from scoring because Acosta had previously connected with junior wide receiver Alexander Gutierrez for a 37-yard scoring play.
By halftime, the Gladiators (7-5) were outgaining the Pioneers by over 100 yards and twice as many offensive plays. The second chance for Artesia to get some points came on the opening drive to begin the second half. A combination of rushes from Flores and Lopez put the ball at the 15-yard line before a 33-yard field goal attempt from sophomore Gio Martinez was unsuccessful.
Gahr took advantage of the missed opportunity and went up 21-7 with an Acosta to Gutierrez connection that went for 48 yards. Perhaps the turning point of the game came after the Pioneers went three and out, but a punt pinned the Gladiators back at the five-yard line. On third and 10, Acosta rolled out to his left, eluded a pair of tacklers that would have stopped him deep in Gahr territory, and sprinted down the Gladiator sideline for a 95-yard touchdown run with 20.7 seconds left in the third quarter.
“I saw an opening and I picked it,” said Acosta. “I had great blockers; the O-line was great the whole game, and my receiver had that block. I saw daylight and I wasn’t going to let anyone stop me.
“I was just confident,” he continued. “I asked [Marshall], ‘let me run the ball. I’m going to make something happen’, and we did it, thanks to my line.”
As Acosta was approaching the endzone, he turned around and backpedaled his way the final few yards. However, he confessed the emotions got the best of him; that it was unprofessional on his part, and he should have been a better leader and not have done that.
“I’ve said it to the kids a million times, when you make mistakes against good teams, they’ll make us pay,” said Crook. “That’s kind of what happened. We made mistakes; we didn’t capitalize on certain opportunities, and they did when they got the ball back. It’s hard to win like that.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, Flores fumbled on the next play and Gahr took a lot of time off the clock, running 11 plays, picking up 56 yards in nearly seven minutes, tacking on its last touchdown-a 23-yard pass from Acosta to senior tight end Jacob Sikma.
Acosta completed 10 of 15 passes to eight different players while senior running back Ja’Shon Wallace and junior running back Jai’Dyn Backus combined for 68 yards on 22 carries, further illustrating that even without injured senior Markell Slaughter (team-leading 1,198 total yards), the Gladiators still have enough depth.
“We didn’t plan on [Acosta] running and throwing the ball,” said Marshall. “We thought we were going to run the ball, and they stuffed it. So, it was good to see that we have the versatility.”
“They have some dudes on their team,” said Crook. “[Acosta] is a little, tough quarterback. He was fast, he was tough, and it just seemed like we would get him to a third or even a fourth down, and they would just get one more yard or extra yard to get the first [down]. We were tough, but they were tougher tonight.”
Junior linebacker Harlym Rayford led Gahr with six tackles while Lucena added five tackles. This marked the fourth time the defense has held an opponent to only one touchdown, and two other times, Gahr allowed less than 15 points. It was the same defense that limited Lopez to 57 yards on nine carries, the second fewest yards this season. Flores picked up 81 yards on 15 touches while defensively sophomore linebacker Robert Garcia led the red and black with seven and a half tackles while junior lineman Maximus Garcia added four and a half tackles.
“I don’t know what’s up because I watched every game that they’ve played and he just takes games over,” Marshall of Lopez. “[He’s like] I’m not handing it off, I’m gone. I don’t think he ever got into that groove. It’s kind of interesting.
“I didn’t think they could stop us, but I didn’t know if we could stop them,” he later said. “We kind of settled down in there because that offense is a little different because of that option read thing. We can’t duplicate that, so it took them a little time to get used to it and once we got that, then we kind of played solid there. I’m so proud of the guys.”
“I knew my team was capable; I knew we had it in us,” said Acosta. “We just had to execute the gameplan and we did exactly that. We’re going to try to keep it going all the way to the finals and hopefully state.
“They stepped up when needed and was physical,” he later said of the defense. “We had helmets clank and clank and that’s the type of game we like to play, and we showed them who we are, today.”
While the Gladiators will be the third different district school to advance to the semifinals in consecutive seasons, the Pioneers finish with the program’s second best season since 2018 (10-4). Before that, the best any Artesia team had gone since at least 1997 was 8-3, which was back in 2005.
“On paper, it was a good year and 9-3 is one of the better records that we’ve had here in a while,” said Crook. “My first year here, they were all freshmen. I was an assistant coach on varsity…and it’s been good watching them grow up throughout the years and seeing these guys do this in their senior season. They’re going to leave a legacy of winning, hopefully, going forward. I’m proud of them, and it was a good year.”
