Foothillers’ streak longest this century
- Updated: October 10, 2021
2021 EAST COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL
No. 12 POWAY 20, GROSSMONT 14
EastCountySports.com staff report
LA MESA – The Grossmont Foothillers gave another respectable account of themselves on Friday night against the visiting Poway Titans.
However, the No. 12-ranked Titans sent the Foothillers to their fifth consecutive defeat, something that hasn’t happened to a Grossmont High varsity team since 1997-99.
Poway (5-2) scored the only touchdown of the second half in a 20-14 non-league victory.
The sights for the Foothillers now turn to the Grossmont Hills League season, where they could be underdogs in each of their last three contests, including next Friday’s league opener against Granite Hills, the Hillers’ only home game of the three-week capaign.
Trenton Giles produced 271 yards of total offense for Grossmont (2-5) and scored a pair of second quarter touchdowns as the Foothillers erased a 14-0 Poway lead.
Giles had a 27-yard run to slice the Titans lead in half. He added a 1-yard run with six seconds left before halftime after the Foothillers took advantage of a short field following a blocked punt.
After a hardcore defensive battle for much of the second half, the Titans scored with three-and-a-half minutes left in the game.
Grossmont eventually drove down inside the Poway red zone with just over a minute to play but couldn’t reach the end zone.
The Titans opened the scoring on a long pass connection for a touchdown in the first quarter. Poway’s second touchdown came on its next series, which came in the second quarter.
“Poway has a tradition of playing physical and disciplined football,” Grossmont head coach Chris Holmes said. “Defensively, we played well most of the game. We will focus on our fundamentals but we need to eliminate big scores like the touchdown throw they had.”
Grossmont rushed for 169 yards against the stout Titan defense, about 80 percent of it coming from Giles.
“Offensively, we need to continue to build together as a unit so we can get on the same page,” Holmes said. “We had opportunities but didn’t execute well enough to take advantage of them, including the final play of the game.”
Grossmont has has a few four-game losing skids since the turn of the century but hadn’t lost more than that consecutively since a 17-game losing streak that spanned three seasons from 1997-99.
The Foothillers lost six straight in ’97 before going 0-10 in ’98. Grossmont lost its opener in 1999 before snapping the streak in Week 2 against Valhalla.
Poway 7 7 0 6 — 20 Grossmont 0 14 0 0 — 14
P — Gant 65 pass from Curry (Wagenseller kick)
P — Gonzalez 15 run (Wagenseller kick)
G — Giles 27 run (Garcia kick)
G — Giles 1 run (Garcia kick)
P — Curry 2 run (kick failed)
