Turnaround season has SHP on brink of CCS championship

“The guys don’t let me live it down,” said Grieb, whose Gators are headed to the Central Coast Section Open Division III championship game after beating visiting Sacred Heart Cathedral, 19-7, in the semifinals Saturday afternoon.

“They exceeded my wildest expectations – how hard they’ve played, how they’ve supported each other,” said Grieb, the second-year head coach. “It’s been awesome. They’ve earned everything they’ve gotten.”

The Gators turned a 3-7 2017 season into 11-1, and turned away two teams from the vaunted West Catholic Athletic League -- St. Ignatius and SHC in the first two rounds -- for the right to play Aptos in next weekend’s title game. They’re not imposing, they’re not especially fast, and they aren’t spectacular in any specific phase of the game.

So, how did they get there?

“We’re very disciplined as a football team,” Grieb said. “We compete. We make very few mistakes. We’re able to run the ball, we play good defense, and the kicking game’s been good. When you do those things, especially in high school football, you can have success.”

That was the formula on Saturday. The Gators held the Irish (6-6) to zero yards on the ground, forced three turnovers while committing none, and grinded out 175 rushing yards.

A big fumble recovery by defensive end Jack Kirkham and a courageous fourth-down call swung the momentum to the Gators, who scored on back-to-back drives to turn a 7-6 deficit into a 19-7 lead by midway through the third quarter. Short touchdown runs by Tevita Moimoi and John Willard pushed SHP into the lead and fourth-quarter interceptions by Moimoi and J.P. Frimel helped seal the victory.

Moimoi’s influence was felt from the first carry of the game, a nine-yard run. On the opening drive, which ended on a 30-yard field goal by Ronan Donnelly, the Gators ran the ball 15 times, gained 67 yards and chewed 8:17 off the clock. Moimoi gained 46 of those yards and finished with 87 on 21 carries.

The first drive, “was huge,” Grieb said. “To be able to take over the game and run the ball the way we did, erased any doubt of, ‘Can we play with these guys?’ It was a statement to be able to do that.”

In the first 15 minutes, SHP ran 26 plays to three for the Irish, and possessed the ball for 13:16 to 1:43. But the Gators had only a 6-0 lead. And when SHC sophomore quarterback Cian Dowling (18 of 32 for 211 yards) finally got going, the Irish looked threatening. His escape from a possible sack and ability to find Kelekolio Mateo on an improvised 11-yard scoring pass put the Irish ahead.

However, two plays changed everything. On the first play of the second half, Dowling failed to deliver a handoff to Anthony Heard and Kirkham fell on the loose ball at the SHC 13.

“The tackle was blocking down and I was trying to squeeze him down and play the read,” Kirkham said. “The ball fell on the ground. I just dove in and muscled someone out for it.”

Kirkham said the turnover gave the Gators new life.

“I felt like we settled for field goals when we could have punched it in,” he said. “We needed something to boost us ahead and swing the momentum. It was a great turnaround.”

As SHP faced a fourth-and-1 at the 4, a field goal would give the Gators the lead, but Grieb elected to go for it. Moimoi followed Willard over left tackle to break through the line and reach the end zone for a 13-7 lead.

“Those kinds of calls help me know that the coaches trust me and trust our line to get that touchdown,” Moimoi said. “The coaches trust us to get the job done.”

Grieb said the call wasn’t that difficult.

“We felt like if we needed to get a yard, we were going to get it,” Grieb said. “It wasn’t like I felt we didn’t want to settle for the field goal. I just felt like we could get it. That was it.

“It’s a long football game. You can’t always predict how things are going to play out. What does the score chart say? I don’t know, but if you think you can get a yard, go get it. And the way we had been running the ball, I had little doubt that we could do it.”

SHP forced a three-and-out to regain possession. Again, Moimoi was the playmaker. Raymond Price III rolled right before planting his feet and throwing left to an uncovered Moimoi, who rambled 47 yards to the 5. Three plays later, Willard carried from the 1 for the score.

“Tevita’s a warrior,” Grieb said. “He just competes every single day. In the game, in practice, in the off-season. He’s just one of those kids you hope everybody can follow his lead. And for the most part, they do, because they’re scared of him … No, because he’s such a great guy. That doesn’t surprise the coaches at all, that he took over.”

Moimoi’s final act, at least before the carries that helped the Gators to run out much of the clock, was his fourth-quarter interception.

“He’s a man of few words, but his actions speak so loud,” Kirkham said. “He’s really a role model to me, even though I’m older. He puts the team first and anything he can do to help us win, he’ll do.”

Kirkham said that much of the team’s success is attributable to how close it is a team. On Friday, for instance, there was a team dinner and afterward the linemen watched the movie “Rudy” together. When it was over, even though it was only 10 o’clock, they were ready for kickoff.

“I’ve never felt the connection with my teammates like I do now,” Kirkham said. “And it’s the heart our team plays with that gets us through.”

SHP hasn’t played in a CCS championship game since beating Riordan in the 2015 Open Division III final. Though the coach was caught a bit off-guard by the team’s success, Moimoi wasn’t.

“Early in the season, I realized we had a lot of talent,” Moimoi said. “It would be such a waste if we didn’t get what we wanted. Our goal was to go all the way.”

Now, the Gators have that chance.

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