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Gahr High junior running back Roman Acosta (#5) scrambles for some of his team-high 78 yards in last Saturday’s CIF-Southern Section Division 13 championship game. Acosta scored on a one-yard run in the second quarter as the Gladiators fell 21-17. PHOTO BY ANGEL FRANCO • IG @PraisedOak_media
December 4, 2024
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
PASADENA-The buzz around Pasadena High was that the 2024 season was a historical one for the Bulldogs, who were making their first trip back to a CIF-Southern Section championship game for the first time since 1947. But Gahr High was making history as well, playing for the program’s first championship in school history.
The first half went good for the top-seeded Gladiators, controlling the clock, limiting the Bulldogs to 13 plays, 75 yards and taking a 14-7 lead into halftime. But the second half was a different story as the Bulldogs took advantage of Gahr’s misfortunes and rallied for a 21-17 victory in the Division 13 title game last Saturday, winning the school’s first divisional title since 1933. Gahr wraps up an improbable season at 8-6.
“It was a great experience for the kids and the school, and to get this far and to come out here and compete in the finals and show that they can play good football,” said Gahr head coach Greg Marshall. “That’s a good football team; that’s the best football team we’ve seen, and we had every opportunity to win the game. We just didn’t do it.
“We dropped a touchdown, we broke coverage on their best guy twice, and then we had them on fourth down,” he continued. “It wasn’t about them; it was about us. Give them credit also, but we just didn’t do what it takes to win a title football game.”
The game wasn’t decided until Andrew Johnson picked off junior quarterback Roman Acosta near the left sideline at the five-yard line, just in front of senior wide receiver Isaiah Haywood, with 2:07 left to the play as the Gladiators were driving for a potential game-winning touchdown. The play was originally set up to go to senior tight end Jabob Sikma over the middle. Instead, Acosta saw Haywood on the left side. But there were several other chances throughout the game.
Two plays into Gahr’s second drive of the game, with the visitors facing a second down at the Pasadena 19-yard line, a dropped touchdown pass cost the Gladiators. That would prove costly because on the second play of the second quarter in a 7-7 contest, senior kicker Noah Hernandez was wide left on a 39-yard field goal attempt, and instead of being up possibly 14-7, it was just a one-possession affair. Gahr had three possessions in the half, scoring on two of them. Then the blue and gold went three and out on its initial possession of the second half, got a 30-yard field goal from Hernandez with 7:51 left in the game on its second possession and had three plays in the third possession before Johnson’s interception.
Gahr had first dibs to begin the game and survived a few mistakes before scoring the game’s first touchdown. After Josiah Rucker sacked Acosta for a nine-yard loss, Gahr was staring at a third and 16 situation from its 19-yard line. But a personal foul penalty bailed out the Gladiators out and later in the drive, a 24-yard run from junior Jai’Dyn Backus and three straight runs by Acosta of 20, six and 12 yards led to a two-yard scoring run from senior running back Dylan Richburg nearly five minutes into the game.
Pasadena, which went winless last season and entered the game with a 7-6 record, got a big 12-yard run from Kayden Holloway on third and nine, and two plays later, tied the game on a 36-yard touchdown pass from Dutch Burbridge to Christopher Solis-Lumar. The Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize on the missed field goal and that led to Gahr taking its second lead.
Starting at their own 40-yard line, the Gladiators methodically marched down the field, chewing up 8:19, running 15 plays and getting an Acosta one-yard run off left guard on fourth and goal. No play went for more than nine yards of the 15 plays and the Gladiators converted a pair of third and one plays and a fourth and four from the Pasadena 18-yard line, the latter coming off another personal foul penalty.
By halftime, Gahr had racked up 132 yards on 31 plays, but, in a blink of an eye, the game turned around and the pendulum started to swing in Pasadena’s favor. The Bulldogs opened the second half by going on a seven-play, 42-yard scoring drive that ended with another Burbridge to Solis-Lumar connection, this one for 13 yards. Add on a Burbridge run for two points and the hosts had taken their first lead, 15-14, with 8:17 left in the third quarter. Both teams would punt on their ensuing possessions and Gahr would end the stanza going from its 27-yard line to the Pasadena 30-yard line in six plays.
“We had good coverage on their best guy,” said Marshall of his team’s defense in the half. “The only guy that’s not going to beat us was supposed to be [Solis-Lumar], and we let him beat us twice. I was proud of the guys’ effort. I was a little bit concerned about their running game a little bit late.”
The Gladiators would eventually get to the seven-yard line after Acosta scrambled for nine yards. But two straight sacks of three yards each pushed Gahr back and it had to settle for a 30-yard field goal from Hernandez just over four minutes into the fourth quarter.
“I thought we missed some opportunities on the pass,” said Marshall. “We really didn’t get the run game going that well, I didn’t think, tonight. Roman did a great job of escaping; I think that was our best run play; was him running, which is what he does.”
The drive of the game for both teams would follow as the Bulldogs were facing third and six from their 42-yard line. After an incomplete pass, the Burbridge to Solis-Lumar act did its thing again, gaining eight yards to get to midfield. Three plays later, Rucker busted loose for a 34-yard touchdown run for the game winner with 3:20 remaining in the game. on the ensuing possession, Acosta threw an incomplete pass, before gaining 20 and two yards, respectively, to get the ball down to the Pasadena 13-yard line. Two straight penalties pushed Gahr back to the 28-yard line before Acosta’s interception.
“That’s playing mistake-free football, which we didn’t,” said Marshall. “I can’t tell you why; we just didn’t do it. We were down here twice and that’s all you really need in a game like this. You can’t drop a touchdown, and you can’t blow coverage. You ca point your finger at one thing.”
Acosta would complete seven of 16 passes for 55 yards and led the Gladiators with 78 yards on 16 carries as they would be held to 203 yards. Richburg also had five tackles while senior linebacker Isaiah Portillo added four tackles.
Before this season, Gahr had reached the semifinals only once in school history. Now, because of league shifting and the new playoff system put in by the CIF-SS, the past seven seasons have seen all three ABC Unified School District football teams play for a divisional championship. In the first season of the 605 League, Artesia High lost in the 2018 Division 12 finals and last season, Cerritos High captured the Division 12 title, the first in the program’s history.
“It just shows that the new system that schools like Cerritos and Gahr proved people that you can play football where the game’s not over before the kickoff,” said Marshall. “We can play good football, too. That’s what that means. I think the [new] system works, especially in the [Suburban Valley] Conference. In the old system, we never would have even been here. They wouldn’t know how good some of these kids are. The same thing with Cerritos. They would have never even got out of the old Suburban League. Now we have that opportunity and it’s good for the kids.”
