El Toro Comes Back To Defeat Huntington Beach (2021)

Lake Forest – Charger Stadium

The Huntington Beach HS football team held a 24-17 lead in the fourth quarter. El Toro forced a punt and got the ball back with just under three minutes remaining in the game. The Chargers marched down the field and capped an 8-play, 75-yard drive with Carson Olson’s 8-yard touchdown run to tie it, 24-24.

Huntington Beach punted the ball away again after AJ Perez was sacked on 3rd-and-15 by Brennen Acosta. EL Toro got down to the 2-yard line where Chargers’ quarterback Blake Miller scored the go-ahead touchdown on a QB keeper with 13 seconds left.

The Chargers (4-0) scored 14 points in the final three minutes to complete the 31-24 comeback win over Huntington Beach on Friday.

“They made plays when they needed to and we didn’t,” Huntington Beach head coach Brett Brown said. “I think that was the difference in this game. They are a good football team and they played hard.”

El Toro took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter on Miller’s 75-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Trey Williams. After the Oilers recovered a fumble on the kickoff, Perez hit Tyler Moses in the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown.

Huntington Beach junior cornerback Quincy Hankins recovered the ball on the kickoff after the Chargers failed to jump on the ball. The Oilers capitalized on the turnover with a 14-yard touchdown run from CJ Taylor and took a 17-10 lead in the second quarter.

El Toro came right back to tie it 17-17 on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Miller to Collin Payne with 24 seconds left in the first half. The Oilers’ offense relied heavily on the run game with senior running back EJ Riederich getting the bulk of the carries.

The Oilers took a 24-17 lead in the third quarter with a 20-yard touchdown run from Reiderich, who finished the game with 23 carries for 121 yards.

“We were running the ball pretty well,” Brown said. “Maybe we went to it too much at the end of the game. He (Riederich) played hard on both sides of the ball. He’s a warrior. He gets mad when we take him out of the game.”

Huntington Beach (2-2) will look to bounce back when they host Marina High School on Thursday, Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.