OCEANSIDE \u2014 Four years into his coaching tenure as Oceanside High School football coach, Fale Poumele\u2019s Pirates are back.<\/p>\n
The Pirates, ranked No 8 in the county, \u00a0proved it in a big way Friday. They jumped out to a 23-point halftime lead, then hung on to upset No. 2-ranked Granite Hills 44-29.<\/p>\n
The win avenges a 43-29 loss, a game in which the Eagles wore out Oceanside two-way star Neke Letuli.<\/p>\n
Granite Hills was the only school Oceanside had played and not defeated, holding a 3-0 advantage.<\/p>\n
Friday, playing just running back while abandoning his cornerback duties, Letuli rushed 27 times for 153 yards with touchdown runs of 11, 8 and 16 yards.<\/p>\n
Plus, he had a time-killing first-down run late in the fourth quarter. And had a 5-yard run to plays late that helped kill time as the Pirates protected an eight-point lead.<\/p>\n
Two plays later, Oceanside ran a reverse pass on fourth-and-5 at the Granite Hills 36 with left-hander Izaiah Austin taking a handoff and sprinting left on what appeared to be a jet sweep.<\/p>\n
Austin looked downfield and found Kapena Soto wide open in the end zone.<\/p>\n
The 36-yard TD with 1:19 to play was the backbreaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan last year was to wear Letuli out,\u201d said Granite Hills coach Kellan Cobbs. \u201cThe kid is a great player, and we saw he was going both ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he was getting tired. So we went after him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday, Letuli \u2014 who like many players on both sides fought cramps \u2014 only played offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Neke plays like that, we\u2019re going to win a lot of games,\u201d Poumele said. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of that young man. He\u2019s a great defender, but our priority is for him to run the ball, pound it inside. And if the outside stuff is there, all the better.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we want something positive every play if we can get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Letuli had five runs of 10-plus yards and had a 20-yard pass reception.<\/p>\n
Oceanside quarterback Anthony Barquinero completed 11 of 27 passes for 217 yards.<\/p>\n
Granite Hills quarterback Zac Benitez, who is chasing every county career passing record, completed 18 of 28 passes for 265 yards and four touchdowns. However, he was intercepted twice, with Lucas Tanning returning one of those picks 36 yards for a score.<\/p>\n
Lincoln transfer Courtney Miller-Thompson caught 12 passes for 230 yards with TD catches for 26, 39, 59 and 23 yards.<\/p>\n
The Eagles rushed 16 times for minus-2 yards and Benitez was sacked four times.<\/p>\n
Oceanside 44, Granite Hills 29<\/p>\n
Granite Hills 0 \u00a0 7 \u00a08 \u00a014 \u2013 29<\/p>\n
Oceanside 21 \u00a09 \u00a07 \u00a0 7 \u2013 44<\/p>\n
O \u2013 Letuli 1 run (Jones kick)<\/p>\n
O \u2013 Mahoney 11 pass from Barquinero (Jones kick)<\/p>\n
O \u2013 Tunning 36 interception return (Jones kick)<\/p>\n
GH \u2013 Miller-Thompson 26 pass from Benitez (Nunez kick)<\/p>\n
O \u2013 Letuli 8 run (Jones kick)<\/p>\n
GH \u2013 Miller-Thompson 26 pass from Benitez (Nunez kick)<\/p>\n
O \u2013 Safety, Intentional grounding in end zone<\/p>\n
O \u2013 Letuli 16 run (Jones kick)<\/p>\n
GH \u2013 Miller-Thompson 59 pass from Benitez (Miller-Thompson pass from Benitez)<\/p>\n
GH \u2013 Miller-Thompson 23 pass from Benitez (Nunez kick)<\/p>\n
O \u2013 Sado 36 pass from Austin (Jones kick)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OCEANSIDE \u2014 Four years into his coaching tenure as Oceanside High School football coach, Fale Poumele\u2019s Pirates are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2044,181,74,76,75,127,1696],"class_list":["post-440229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-high-school-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}