Carlsbad football dispatches Granite Hills 63-14 in season finale: 4 takeaways

EL CAJON -- Both teams entered Friday unbeaten on the season and ranked within San Diego’s top five, but it was Carlsbad who wasted no time, scoring touchdowns on four of their first five possessions to grab a 28-0 lead and never looked back in a 63-14 rout of Granite Hills.

IT WAS OVER WHEN

Granite Hills had the opportunity for a big opening when they recovered a Carlsbad fumble in the red zone midway through the first quarter and were gifted 15 additional yards from a post play penalty on the Lancers. The Eagles’ offense couldn’t find a way to attack the Lancers, and were forced into their second of three consecutive three-and-outs.

Carlsbad’s offense didn’t let up, scoring on their next five possessions to give themselves a 42-14 halftime lead.

HOLD NOTHING BACK

With the 2021 spring season putting all coaches in the rare position of knowing exactly when the season will end, Carlsbad was able to empty the playbook on Friday and capitalized with back-to-back possessions in the second quarter.

On their first snap of the second quarter, Sayin tossed the ball to junior Paulo Burak who ran to the right side before stopping and throwing a backward pass to Sayin, who caught it and immediately threw to a wide-open Josh Davis who caught it on the one-yard line and stepped into the end zone for his second touchdown catch of the night.

After recovering a Granite Hills fumble on the ensuing possession, Carlsbad dug deep into the playbook once again. This time junior Matthew Moore took a sweep handoff from Sayin, running to the right side before stopping to fire a perfect pass to Tyler Nolte right as he crossed the goal line.

Without the opportunity of playoffs during the shortened spring season, Carlsbad was able to treat the season finale as a bowl game of sorts by taking on a highly ranked, non-league, undefeated opponent.

“For sure, that’s what it was,” Carlsbad head coach Thadd MacNeal said. “You could see in the play calling, like let it all loose because it’s our last game, they’re undefeated, we’re undefeated, we knew it’d be a great matchup and we were excited about it.”

SAYIN GOES OUT ON TOP

After a junior season in which he led the Lancers to a berth in the CIF Open Division Championship game while throwing 24 touchdown passes along the way, Carlsbad senior quarterback Aidan Sayin was able to get five more games this spring to finish out his high school career.

He saved his best for last.

Sayin was 13 of 16 passing for 285 yards and tossed five touchdown passes in Friday’s finale.

“Going out on a win, it was a great night. We got to play all our guys, get touchdowns for our favorite friends out here so it was a great night,” Sayin, who’s committed to the University of Pennsylvania, said after the game.

“Preparation was interesting, we’ve never played them so it was all new stuff but it was a fun week preparing and it was a great night out here, I’m thankful that we got a game.”

FINISHING UNBEATEN

Carlsbad was able to finish unbeaten for the first time since 2006 (10-0-2) and reach all the possible goals in shortened season that didn’t include playoffs.

“Well for sure,” MacNeal said. “We’re a young team and we’re trying to get guys experience but more than anything just being able to let these seniors finish the way they wanted to and the way we started the year as far as everyone had us so low, you know we were open division finalists. Our guys fed on that stuff, we’re still a pretty good team.”

The Lancers were dominant in their five spring games, recording two shutouts and didn’t allow any opponent more than 14 points. They finished the season with a +198-point differential.

“We were just grateful for any games we were able to get because of Let Them Play California, they did great work and we’re grateful for every game and just took them one at a time, we knew playoffs were probably not gonna happen so just get our games in and have fun,” Sayin said.