San Marcos senior Peyton Sperling stepped in front of a Dos Pueblos pass for a game-sealing interception with 38 seconds to play and the Royals captured a 14-7 victory over the rival Chargers on Tuesday night at Scott O’Leary Stadium
The victory avenged the Royals’ 15-14 loss to Dos Pueblos in their first matchup and put the two teams in a tie atop the Channel League standings.
“They stayed focused and they didn’t let the moment rattle them,” said San Marcos coach Jaylon Letendre of her team. “This is an extremely good Dos Pueblos team, and they knew that we had to lock in.”
As was the case in their first matchup, the defenses dominated early in the game. The two teams were tied at the end of the first quarter after trading punts back and forth.
San Marcos made the first big play of the game when sophomore Victoria Aldana intercepted a pass from her cornerback position and returned it to the Dos Pueblos 10-yard line. Three plays later, Aldana, now playing quarterback, reached the ball over the goal line from one-yard out to give the Royals a 6-0 lead.
On the ensuing one-point conversion, Sperling connected with Janelle Capuno to give San Marcos a 7-0 lead with 1:18 remaining in the first half.
On the first play of the next Dos Pueblos drive, freshman Piper Kittle snagged another interception for San Marcos. The Royals drove down to the opposing six-yard line, but Aldana’s pass to Sperling as the first-half clock expired was well short of the goal line, and the Chargers’ defense held.
The Royals carried that momentum into the second half, forcing a Dos Pueblos three-and-out before mounting a five-play 49-yard drive that was capped off by a 12-yard pass from Rio Chesluk to Capuno on a gadget play.
Chesluk was recently named Sports Illustrated national girls’ athlete of the week after garnering 61 percent of the fan vote.
A short run by Sperling converted the ensuing one-point conversion to give San Marcos a 14-0 lead with 8:21 remaining in the third quarter.
Dos Pueblos cut into their deficit with 11:23 remaining in the fourth quarter on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Kacey Hurley to Brooklyn Hedricks.
The big-play came on fourth-and-five from the 35-yard line and instead of hitting a short pass to get the first down Hurley launched a game-changing deep ball that hit Hedricks perfectly in stride.
“I don’t know many kids that can take that stab. I am so proud of her performance,” said Dos Pueblos coach Doug Caines of Hurley. “Quarterback is the most difficult job to play, and everybody can see that she threw some picks and that hurts. The reality is I am excited by that. She can learn from that.”
After forcing San Marcos into a turnover on downs, Dos Pueblos had an opportunity to tie or take the lead on its next offensive possession, but after a long drive the Chargers were stopped on fourth-and-goal from the 13-yard line with just under two minutes remaining.
The Chargers got one last chance with under a minute remaining, but Sperling came up with her clutch interception to clinch the victory for San Marcos.
I just wanted to finish the game out for the team. We played great the whole time; everybody did their part,” Sperling said. “It sucks to lose; any athlete knows that, so it was really good to get that back.”
With the loss, Dos Pueblos dropped to 18-2 overall record and 9-1 in Channel League play as the Royals snapped their 12-game winning streak. San Marcos improves to 18-3 overall and 9-1 in Channel League.
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