San Marcos opened the inaugural Channel League Flag Football Tournament with a 14-6 victory over Rio Mesa on Monday at Warkentin Stadium to advance to the semifinals.
With the win, the Royals now have a matchup against Dos Pueblos, who defeated Buena 49-0 on Monday, at Buena High School on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. with a ticket to the league championship on the line.
“This is different going back-to-back games so it’ll be a challenge with that and playing at a neutral site will be awkward,” San Marcos coach Walter Bazylewicz said. “But it doesn’t take a lot of extra motivation when you’re playing a crosstown rival so we’ll be motivated.
“[Dos Pueblos] is a great team and they’ll give us all they have.”
The Royals got out to a fast start with four straight pass plays to Janelle Capuno to get down the field before Victoria Aldana found a wide-open Rio Chesluk across the middle of the field for a 17-yard touchdown.
After a failed extra-point attempt, San Marcos led 6-0 with 20:30 left in the opening half.
Rio Mesa then marched down the field and seemed poised to answer with a score of their own, but the Royals’ defense flexed its muscles with four straight stops inside their own 10-yard line to force a turnover on downs.
The San Marcos offense responded with a long drive down the field that ended with another 17-yard passing touchdown, this one from Aldana to Rylie Cook.
A two-point conversion from Aldana to Chesluk gave the Royals a 14-0 lead at the 9:20 mark.
Aldana, a freshman, had another strong game under center for San Marcos. She completed 25 of 41 passes for 217 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“The big thing with [Aldana] is she just doesn’t make a lot of mistakes,” Bazylewicz said. “She’s really smart with the ball and as she grows she’s going to continue to look for that second and third receiver if number one isn’t open.
“We’re really excited that she’s back and mostly healthy… We’re really excited to have her for the next few years.”
The rest of the first half was headlined by a stout San Marcos defense that forced another turnover on downs and secured an interception when Chesluk jumped in front of a pass as the clock expired to maintain the 14-0 lead at halftime.
“I don’t think there’s been a game where [Chesluk] hasn’t scored a touchdown and there’s been very few games where she hasn’t had an interception,” Bazylewicz said.
The two defenses came out of the half strong by exchanging turnovers on downs before the Spartans broke onto the scoreboard with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Jocelyn Sanchez to Yareli Torres.
A failed extra-point try cut the San Marcos lead to 14-6 with 14:30 left on the clock.
Following a few stalled drives by both sides, Rio Mesa found some success and got the ball inside the Royals’ 20-yard line.
However, Chesluk came through once again on the defensive side of the ball, pulling down her second interception of the night to give her team the ball with the lead with 3:40 remaining.
“[Chesluk] is a smart player and she understands what the offense is trying to do to us on defense and I think that allows her to jump a lot of routes,” Bazylewicz said.
The San Marcos offense then had a chance to finish off the win, but the Spartans forced a turnover on downs to regain possession in Royals’ territory.
After a few plays to get down to the 12-yard line with 32 seconds left, Sanchez dropped back and released a pass that was tipped into the air by her receiver into the waiting hands of Molly McCarter for the game-winning interception.
“The defense did a great job tonight making the big, timely plays with those interceptions,” Bazylewicz said. “The Rio Mesa quarterback is a really good player, she is definitely one of the top in the league.
“We knew that she was going to sling it around and it was going to be a big challenge for us, and we rose to that challenge tonight… I’m really proud of the girls.”
The Royals will look to get some revenge on the Chargers on Tuesday after falling to their crosstown rival 20-6 in the regular season.
On the other side of the bracket, the top-seeded Ventura Cougars will take on the Oxnard Yellow Jackets on Tuesday at 7:45 p.m.