Clairemont 28, Southwest (El Centro) 13

The Clairemont Chieftains win their first home playoff game in over a decade defeating the Southwest Eagles 28-13 in the first round of Div. IV high school football in the San Diego Section.

Senior QB RJ McCoy got the scoring started on the Chieftain’s third drive of the game with a 17-yard scamper for a touchdown.

Southwest struggled early on offense, turning the ball over on a fumble on their first possession and their second possession ending with a muffed kick bouncing off of three Chieftains traveling only 15 yards to set up Clairemont inside the Eagles 20 to set up the McCoy touchdown.

However, on their third possession, the Eagles responded to McCoy’s touchdown with a 10-play, 64-yard drive capped off by RB Gio Camarena’s 1-yard score to tie it a 7-7.

Clairemont took advantage of good field possession in the first half as their drive following Southwest’s touchdown started at the 42-yard line and once again ended on a RJ McCoy rushing touchdown, this time from 8 yards out to make it 14-7 at the half.

Southwest had their best drive of the game opening the second half with a 12-play, 80-yard drive lasting five minutes. The drive consisted of all rushing plays with seven going to their lead back Nigel Rabb who punched it in from the 1-yard line. The missed extra point made it 14-13.

The Chieftains were once again resilient, answering after their opponents score with one of their own. This time it was RB Alessandro Baldassare with the score to extend Clairemont’s lead 21-13.

It was the middle of the fourth quarter when RB Alex Beaubien put the icing on the cake with a 23-yard touchdown run.

“I have to give credit to my offensive lineman, they did a great job opening lanes for us backs,” Beaubien explained after the game.

Clairemont will head to Mater Dei to face the No.2 seed Crusaders.