Foothillers Fall Hard to Steele Canyon

One scenario would have allowed Grossmont High School to snag a share of the inaugural Grossmont Hills League football championship. The Foothillers needed to defeat Steele Canyon, then hope the Cougars could rebound to down Helix next week on the final night of the regular season.

Alas, the round-robin split among the three teams failed to materialize.

Grossmont, after getting belted 41-0 by Helix on Oct. 22, took an even bigger hit from Steele Canyon, which rolled up 311 yards on the ground in Friday night's one-sided 51-0 whitewashing at Cougar Stadium.

Steele Canyon scored on its first five possessions, then took a knee to close the first half with a mammoth 30-0 lead at intermission. Meanwhile, the defense limited Grossmont quarterback DeSean Waters, the league's second-leading rusher at 125.6 yards per outing, to minus-3 yards on the ground for the contest.

The Cougars' Jake Wragg, the league's top ball-carrier, collected touchdown rushes of 3 and 9 yards, then teammate Brandon Watson broke loose on a 64-yard TD gallop to put the game away early.

It was the largest margin of victory in Steele Canyon history, surpassing a 56-7 win over Serra.

Take away the setbacks to Helix and Steele Canyon and Grossmont would own a 7-0 overall record and have a 211-56 advantage in point total. But with the combined 0-91 margin against the top two GHL squads—they meet next week at Helix to determine the league champion—the Hillers (7-2, 2-2 GHL) will finish in third place in the circuit.

Grossmont caps the regular season Nov. 12 by hosting former Grossmont North League rival West Hills (3-6, 0-4) in a 7 p.m. start. The Hillers can also anticipate a home game on Nov. 19 in the opening round of the San Diego-section CIF playoffs.

Special to La  Mesa Patch from EastCountySports.com