Claremont Steals 28-21 Overtime Victory over Bonita, Advances to Playoffs after Winning Coin Flip

CLAREMONT – Bonita High School needed to win and they will earn the automatic third seed in the Palomares League. Claremont had other plans as it stole a 28-21 overtime victory over the visiting Bearcats in the league finale for both teams.

Duy Tran-Samson’s 4-yard touchdown run in overtime help lifted the Wolfpack (6-4, 2-3) into a three-way tie for third place with Bonita (6-4, 2-3) and Ayala (6-4, 2-3).

“We treated this game like a playoff game,” Wolfpack head coach Mike Collins said. “We felt that we are a championship team, so we had to play the like it is.”

Tran-Samson scored the tying touchdown with 3:33 to go in regulation, a 6-yard run, and then Ryan O ‘Conner was on the receiving end of a Ben Lynch Pass for the two-point conversion to tie the game.

“It was a play that you practice but you never get to use,” laughed Collins of the double reverse pass to get the two point conversion.

Tran-Samson finished with159 yards on 42 carries and the two touchdowns

Claremont held Bonita running back Angel Verdugo to only 62 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown.

Tanner East led the Bonita passing attack, going 12 of 21 for 179yards and two touchdowns, and almost had a third one, but the pass was caught out of bounds.

After holding Claremont to a three and out on its initial drive, Bonita promptly marched down the field, culminating in a 40 yard pass from East to BJ McLaurin.

East then found Danny Gelaich deep for a 74 yard bomb down the left sideline with under a minute to go in the third quarter to take a commanding 21-10 lead heading into the final stanza.

That’s when everything snowballed.

After Jacob Olesniewicz made a 21-yard field goal to make it a one-possession game at 21-13, Bonita received the ensuing kickoff, needing only to run out the clock, but instead fumbled on the second possession of the second drive deep in its own territory to set up the first of Tran-Samson’s touchdowns.

“That was definitely a momentum changer,” Collins said of the fumble recovery. “Up to that point we couldn’t get our running game going. They played very tough defense.”

Claremont then went for the onside kick which they recovered, but was not able to capitalize it.

Bonita had one final chance to win the game in regulation, but East’s pass once again found Gelaich, but it was ruled out of bounds.

“It is great for the kids to work hard and finally get the win,” Collins said. “Last week, we worked hard and should have won the game, but a offsides called against us gave them a chance at a field goal, which beat us.”

PALOMARES LEAGUE THIRD PLACE

CLAREMONT 6-4 2-3

BONITA 6-4 2-3

AYALA 6-4 2-3

*Claremont advances by virtue of winning the coin flip held half an hour after the game.

**Bonita still has a chance at lone at-large bid…maybe

Photo: Duy Tran-Samson gains some of his 159 yards