MISSION VIEJO — The CIF-SS Division 2 first-round playoff game between Palos Verdes and Mission Viejo on Friday at Mission Veijo High School evolved into a track meet in the second half.
That was mainly because of the play of Diablos quarterbacks Luke Fahey and Draden Trudeau and Ryan Rakowski, the Sea Kings’ outstanding freshman quarterback.
But the Diablos were simply unstoppable on nearly every drive throughout the game and came away with a 59-35 victory.
The Diablos (8-3) will play host to Oaks Christian in a second-round game Friday, Nov. 10.
The 59 points was a season high for the Diablos, who scored on four of their five first-half drives and five of six drives in the second half.
Mission Viejo also played better defense in the first half and made fewer mistakes than in previous games, Diablos coach Chad Johnson said.
“We’ve been so young all year long,” Johnson said. “What I mean by that is we’ve made so many young mistakes. You know, silly penalties, silly turnovers, lack of concentration, just mental errors. And I told these guys, all right, 10 games are done. So, game 11, you’re a junior now. You juniors are now seniors. You sophomores are now juniors.
“So no more being young. No more young mental errors. No more — that’s out the window. We grow up now. And we came out tonight, I felt, and played a very grown up, mature game on offense. And this is what we can do.”
Fahey and Trudeau combined for 354 yards passing and six touchdowns and Rawkowski completed 11 of 21 passes for 233 yards and three scores.
The teams scored three touchdowns each in the third quarter.
The game also featured a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by the Sea Kings’ Luke Gayton, who also had a 71-yard reception for a touchdown.
Trudeau threw touchdown passes of 40, 12 and 3 yards and Fahey’s touchdown passes were for 3, 14 and 6 yards.
“Our coaches put a great game plan together and we’ve been striving all week to be perfect, not only this week but last week, Trudeau said. “The focus was to perfect ourselves and get better and better. So, coming to this game with the game plan we had and the coaches we had, I felt really well that it was going to be the outcome like this.”
The Diablos forced Palos Verdes to punt on four of its five first-half possessions.
One of the biggest stops for the Diablos came on third-and-9 from the Palos Verdes 21.
After the punt, the Diablos took over on their 45 with 3:29 remaining, plenty of time to put together a scoring drive.
On first down, Trudeau hit Vance Spafford for 11 yards and Hinesward Lilomaiava followed with three consecutive rushes totaling 33 yards.
On second-and-11 from the Sea Kings 12, Trudeau connected with Spafford again, this time for a 12-yard touchdown which gave the Diablos a 24-10 halftime lead.
Rakowski came into the game with 1,616 yards passing and 20 touchdowns.
The Sea Kings won close games against Edison and Corona del Mar earlier in the season.
“I loved our effort,” Palos Verdes coach Guy Gardner said. “We didn’t go away. We just kept playing. I love this team. I’m extremely proud of all these guys.”
