Rancho survives Chino Hills with Hail Mary
Will Lester/Staff Photographer
Nick Baiz was assuredly not the only one praying.
Trailing by five points with 6.6 seconds remaining in a CIF-SS Inland Division first-round playoff game, the Rancho Cucamonga High School football coach had his request answered when Marcus Bratton hauled in a Hail Mary to breathe life back into the Cougars season with a 39-38 win over Chino Hills on Friday night.
Rancho Cucamonga (10-1) drove 70 yards in the final 26 seconds, punctuating the game-winning drive when Bratton hauled in the 38-yard jump ball a yard inside the back of the end zone to complete an 11-point comeback in the final five minutes.
"All I saw was the ball hit my hands," Bratton said. "I looked up, tried to spot it. I just squeezed it. It's indescribable."
Though both were second-place teams, Chino Hills (6-5) from the Sierra League and Rancho Cucamonga from the Baseline League, it was the Cougars that emerged from the tougher league with just one loss on the year.
Nobody told Chino Hills that its season was supposed to end Friday. Led by running back Brandon Ginoza, who had 255 all-purpose yards, the Huskies scored the most points on Rancho Cucamonga since Corona Centennial beat the Cougars, 49-47, in 2005.
Quarterback Andrew Chavez, who threw for 235 yards in the first half, tossed his fourth touchdown pass of the night with 24 seconds left in the third quarter to give Chino Hills a 38-27 lead.
If that wasn't enough, Rancho Cucamonga overcame two fourth-quarter interceptions by quarterback Dimitri Morales, who threw for 221 yards and rushed for 83 yards and three touchdowns.
The Cougars only had to go 35 yards after a blocked punt with 5:40 to play. Morales' 19-yard run cut the deficit to 38-33, but the two-point conversion pass was incomplete.
Ginoza, who rushed for 125 yards and caught three touchdowns on four receptions for 130 yards, helped Chino Hills drain the clock down to 30 seconds left before punting to the Cougars.
"Nobody gave us a shot," Chino Hills coach Derek Bub said. "But we've got great kids. No matter what, it's tough to lose like this."
Beginning from his own 30 yard line with 26 seconds to play, Morales scrambled out of bounds for eight yards. He fired a 13-yard pass to Bratton, who finished with three receptions for 85 yards, and hit Metuisela Unga with a 16-yard pass before spiking it to set up the game's final play.
"Hail Mary," Baiz said. "You say your prayers and hope you come down with it."
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About Clay
Clay Fowler has been covering high school sports for six years in California and Texas. He was born in Dallas, attended the University of Texas and worked in Central Texas before joining the Daily Bulletin staff in 2006.
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Rancho congrats.
What happened?? Was Chino Hills really that good? We got Charter Oak next week and they destroyed Chino Hills. I hear Charter oak is a different team from earlier this season..
next week will be a tough game against Redlands East Valley Wildcats! good luck to both teams!
I told you in the beginning of the season when you were disrepecting charter oak,that they were good.They go 4 and 5 wideouts and their qb is a shifty runner. They will cause upland trouble because the two little db's at upland are vulnerable.
Chino Hills has a lot of respect today after they worked RC last night until the end. Everyone had RC winning by 4-5 touchdowns and resting their players in the second half. The problem with RC is they have no bench or depth on the team. Looking at their JV scores on max prep the defense gave up alot of points too. RCHS relies too much on the starters, once they are exposed or get tired there is no rotation able to back up the starters. This is why you saw Chino Hills do what they did last night. If a team out there ends up running the no huddle offense like CC does, RC will not make it past half time. Right noe in Cucamonga they call last nights game "The great escape".
yeah we were that good and rancho got very lucky. or should i say "hail mary", please. rancho's done next week anyway(go rev).
#34 for CH had a huge game last nite! He tourched RC's dbs ALL nite. Great individual effort by that young man...
UHS Popwarner,
which team relies on their JV to come in a varsity game and give a starter rest..NONE!!!! Maybe when there is a big lead. Just so you know we have 4 starters out for the season and we are still managing to win..I guess there are a few kids on the bench that can play..
UHS, if you lost your starting RB, MLB, DE and RT would you still win???Probably not, so lets stop with all this stupid bench talk...
We did not play well at all, we had 5 turnovers and like 9 or 10 penalties. We got lucky to win, I will definately admit that, but playing that bad and never quiting then winning on the last play, I guess we didnt get tired as the UHS people keep thinking.
Now CH people are pulling for REV, to do what they could not. Should be a great game and hopefully we dont need any more hail mary's at the end of the game.
Proud of our Boys! They went out and played their heart out, I just think we should of ran that offense all year and gave everyone a different look at us. Run N Gun showed who we really are this year. Good job for RC keeping focused on that hailmary pass by the way. I guess we saved the best for last.
Here are the interviews and Highlights from the Game last week
http://www.youtube.com/user/tommykiss?feature=mhee
@upland fan
Rancho beat Charter Oak 21-13, Charter Oak beat Chino hills 38-7 and then Rancho barely beat Chino Hills.