El Camino football outduels Bishop's 75-59 to win CIF San Diego Section Division two title: 5 takeaways

Kiah Reid threw for five touchdowns and ran for another as El Camino mounted a huge comeback to take down Bishop's, 75-59, in the San Diego Section Division Two Championship game.

In a game that featured wild momentum swings, El Camino rallied from a 25-point halftime deficit to beat Bishop's 75-59 in the CIF San Diego Section Division 2 championship game Friday night at Southwestern College. Here are five takeaways from the game:

Top Performers

Sophomore
quarterback Kiah Reid took over for the Wildcats late in the season and has
completely transformed their offense. In the championship he was 12 of 18 for
285 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran ten times for 65 yards and another
touchdown.

Senior wide receiver
Alexander Fetko caused problems for the Bishop’s secondary throughout the
night. He finished with six catches for 200 yards and three touchdowns for the
Wildcats.

Zion Jackson didn’t
get a big share of carries for El Camino, but he made the most out of them. He
carried seven times for 109 yards and two touchdowns.

Stamping his mark as San Diego’s top player, Tyler Buchner ended his junior season with a bang. The Notre Dame commit was 20 of 47 for 286 yards and three touchdowns. He also carried 18 times for 350 yards and five touchdowns.

Bishop's quarterback Tyler Buchner

They Said It

El Camino’s offense
was able to make several adjustments at halftime that allowed their come back.

“It’s just being
able to run the ball and being able to give it to our playmakers in space,” El
Camino head coach Michael Hobbs said after the game. “Allow our line to take
control and just to keep the full throttle down on them.”

The Wildcats scored
39 unanswered points in the last fifteen minutes and fifty seconds of game
play.

El Camino’s win gave
them their second CIF Championship in three seasons under coach Michael Hobbs.

It Was Over When

After El Camino
evened the score at 59 less than a minute into the 4th quarter,
Bishop’s drove down into the El Camino red zone. The Knights offense stalled
forcing them into a 4th down attempt.

The shotgun snap was
fumbled and eventually recovered by Bishop’s but resulted in a turnover on
downs. With the Bishop’s defense wearing down, El Camino was able to score two
touchdowns in the next four minutes to secure their championship.

Comeback Cats

El Camino struggled to
contain Tyler Buchner in the first half, but their offense showed signs of life
if they could string some second half stops together.

What changed for the
Wildcats over those last fifteen minutes?

“Honestly, a quick
mindset change. We’ve always done good in the second half and we figure out
what to do to change our mindset for that game,” Kiah Reid said.

“We’ve been down at
halftime multiple times throughout the year, we’re a second half team we just gotta
keep playing our game,” Hobbs added. “We made a couple of adjustments,
offensively and defensively and we felt those would help us finish out the
second half.”

Bothering Buchner

There’s so little
that can be done to throw off a player the caliber of Tyler Buchner. His first
half performance served notice to everyone throughout Southern California what
his true skill level is.

After the Knight’s
scored a touchdown late in the 3rd quarter, the Bishop’s sideline
looked to just be out of energy. Playing a team with an enrollment of at least
four times started to get to Bishop’s. El Camino was able to rush the passer
with more success and as even able to grab an extremely rare interception against
Buchner.

“Defense I know we
struggled a little bit, but they came up big in that fourth quarter,” Reid
said.