Week 7 South Bay Game of the Week: Eastlake Titans 36, Mater Dei Crusaders 21

The Metro-Mesa League title still runs through Eastlake as the Titans beat the Mater Dei Crusaders, 36-21.

After starting the season 1-5, the Titans win their first game against a team from San Diego. They stacked their pre-league schedule against three teams currently in the top 5 (Cathedral Catholic, St. Augustine, Steele Canyon) as they normally do and today it paid off as it has in the past. Eastlake is known for playing top programs before league begins, one of the reasons why they have been so dominate in the past decade.

It was all Eastlake early as Matthew Zaravia took a Trevor Appelman pass the other way to take the early lead, 7-0.

Titan running back Emiliano Lozano started his spectacular night in the second quarter taking a handoff 39 yards for the touchdown to increase the lead, 14-0.

It was a defensive battle in the first half as there were a combined seven turnovers.

The third turnover would result in a touchdown for Mater Dei as Tre Edwards would take a deflected pass to the house for six to cut the deficit in half. The Crusaders would capitalize again on an Eastlake turnover late in the first half. Quarterback Trevor Appelman threw a nice touch pass to Jessie Campbell for an 18-yard touchdown to tie it at 14 at the half.

Eastlake rushed for 180 yards in the first half and got better on the ground as the game progressed rushing for 256 yards in the second half. Largely in part to big touchdown runs by Emiliano Lozano of 56 and 76 yards. The senior had 221 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Running back Mateo La added to the rushing attack accumulating 140 yards on the ground.

While the running game excelled for the Titans, the same can’t be said for Mater Dei. The electrifying back, Aiden Calvert, was bottled up all night. The senior averages a first down every time he touches the ball and only had one run of at least 10 yards.

Other than the turnovers, Eastlake played well on both sides of the ball and look to be the favorite again to win the Metro-Mesa League for back-to-back years.

Mater Dei drops to 3-4 and will head to Olympian (1-5) next week.

Eastlake improves to 2-5 and will have a home game against Bonita Vista (3-4) Week 8.