Griffins back ‘home’ to smash Raiders

ECS staff report

EL CAJON —- For anyone old enough to remember Grossmont College football late in the 20th Century, the Griffins enjoyed a homecoming of sorts by returning to their old home field at Grossmont High School on Saturday (Sept. 25), posting a huge fourth-quarter effort to take down Moorpark College, 55-21, in the team’s first true home contest of the season.

An earlier scheduled home game against Southwestern was played at the Jaguars’ field in Chula Vista.

Riding a 28-21 advantage through three quarters, Grossmont erupted for a 27-point explosion in the fourth period, while the defense of the G-House shutout the Raiders to win going away.

Grossmont quarterback Brady Abt fired four touchdown passes to mount a 28-7 lead.

The first two went to Payton Monson, covering 35 and 10 yards, then the next pair were hauled in by Chris Carter (Steele Canyon), who hit the ‘X’ button twice with mammoth grabs of 61 and 55 yards.

The Raiders battled back to with a score by the end of three periods, but in the fourth, the Griffins’ special teams found a new way to score with Perry Steele’s 9-yard touchdown run on a fake field goal, as Grossmont scored four straight touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“It was a great call by them,” Moorpark coach Mike Stuart said.

Grossmont’s Treyvion Davies added a 40-yard touchdown run.

In the final minutes, quarterback Elia Kirisimasi. completed his first TD pass of the season.  Then on the contest’s final play and Moorpark desperate to save face, a Raiders pass was intercepted by Aldo Olweny and returned 83 yards for the exclamation score.

Abt (28-for-45) threw for a career-best 480 yards, the most by a Griffin quarterback since the program won the state championship in 2005. The team collected 526 yards through the air, amassing the final total of 647 yards in total offense.

The defense was equally huge in the final stanza, forcing three turnovers over the final 15 minutes. Included was an interception by strong safety Chance Lovato, plus a fumble recovery by defensive tackle Anthony Lombardo.

Lovato was the top tackler with eight stops, followed by Jagger Giles (7) and Ajani Shelton (6).

Payton Maul had a sack for Grossmont, as did Giles and Shelton.

Steele had a team-high eight receptions for 125 yards.

Carter finished with seven receptions for 165 yards, while Monson collected seven passes for 112 yards. Davis topped the rushers with 75 yards on just 10 carries, including a 40-yard burst to set up a score.

Despite Moorpark being located less than 30 miles from the San Fernando Valley, this was the first meeting between the schools this century.

Grossmont College renovated parts of its football and stadium facilities recently but for the second straight game this season, the Griffins had to play a home game at a facility other than their own.