After winning two consecutive CIF games, the Stallions bid for a CIF championship ended with a loss to Huntington Beach.

On the upside for the first time in SJHHS history, the varsity football team won the Sea View League Championships and qualified to compete in the CIF playoffs. With SJHHS being such a young school, the team shocked the crowd with the amazing win.

“It feels pretty freakin’ awesome! Our school is so young and winning against Dana Hills was so exciting and such a rush,” said senior Jacob Gibson, quarterback.

“Our school’s team has done so well this season, we all worked really hard, and our guys really deserve this,” Gibson continued.

The game started in favor of the Stallions with a TD in the 2nd quarter and another two in the 3rd quarter, giving them what looked like a comfortable lead going into the fourth.

All that changed when Dana Point started scoring — 21 points in the 4th quarter, putting fans and players alike on edge.

“They started catching up,” said Guillermo Mingram, a JV player who watched the game from the sidelines. “We made some mistakes and started blaming but in the end we got it all together and stopped them.”

Dana Hills was out of timeouts in the fourth and needed another TD to answer the last Stallion drive which resulted in a TD, making the score 28-21. With 6 seconds left and no timeouts Dana Hills threw a deep on fourth down but all their receivers were well covered by Stallion Defense.

“This is my second year being a quarterback for our school, so I got a little bit of practice in, and I was ready for it this year,” said Gibson.

“I started as a sophomore and that year we went 0-10 which was heartbreaking, at least for me, and now two years later we won league and now CIF, it’s just awesome,” said Blake Berman, senior defense number 34.

“Last year we had to fill in big shoes with going 7-3 and now doing better than that is just mind blowing for some of us,” said Kolton McCluskey, junior defensive back/wide receiver number 1.

“Coach Flowers and myself are more happy for the players on the team,” said Armando Gonzalez, Athletic Director. “

“Flowers and I have had a pretty long career in the field, and to see the starting point of the guys who came in here as freshmen and sophomores then to see them work hard and now going to CIF playoffs is really gratifying to see all of their hard work pay off,” he continued.

“I can only imagine that the seniors of our varsity team feel great, what we do in football is a process of starting and working and getting better strength wise, speed wise, and getting ready for the game. Theres many techniques that the coaches throw at them and they have to memorize. These boys are so committed to playing and what we are about here at San Juan. We can watch them as coaches and we want it for our program, but it’s really all about the boys, and if they truly want it or not,” said Gonzalez.