SANTA CLARITA — “I’ve always dreamed of playing in the rain, and then to make it a playoff game at home?”
Saugus senior running back Ty Hall was grateful for the opportunity to run in rainfall, and he and his Centurion teammates stormed back to defeat Calabasas 28-27 in overtime in the CIF Southern Section Division 7 quarterfinals on Friday.
Hall was the star of the show for a Saugus offense that relied mostly on his legs due to largely constant rain, and he ran for four total touchdowns and over 150 yards in the Centurions’ win to earn Saugus their first semifinal appearance since 2017.
Calabasas took a 7-0 lead on the game’s first play from scrimmage after senior running back Kayne Miller outran Saugus’ defense 80 yards to paydirt.
The Centurions responded with a touchdown of their own on their opening drive. Hall ran the ball seven times on the drive for 44 yards and finished things with an 11-yard score to knot things up at 7-7.
From there, Calabasas began to take control when quarterback Dominik Hardy found receiver Dezmyn Hardy for an 80-yard touchdown to take a 14-7 lead. Miller scored for a second time in the game when he ran for a 30-yard touchdown up the left side of the field to extend their lead to 21-7.
Calabasas went into halftime up by that same score. Saugus would answer on their opening drive of the third quarter.
After converting a 4th-and-5 from Calabasas’ 42-yard line earlier in the possession, Hall found the end zone with a 30-yard run to cut the Coyotes’ lead to 21-14 with 7:47 left in the quarter.
That score would stay the same into the fourth quarter, and Saugus’ defense would come up big when they got a stop on a fourth-and-6 for Calabasas from Saugus’ 36-yard line with five minutes remaining.
From there, Saugus would go down the field on the legs of quarterback Jake Nuttall and Hall, and the latter would tie the game up at 21 all with three minutes left in regulation.
Saugus forced overtime when Dominik Hardy’s pass to the end zone from 39 yards out fell incomplete – and that’s when the rain would make its presence felt again.
Miller scored a 3-yard touchdown for Calabasas to begin things in the extra period, but the Coyotes were unable to hold the extra point cleanly, leading to a kick that went straight into the offensive line and left Saugus down 27-21.
Hall would score his fourth and final touchdown on a 3rd-and-goal at the 1-yard line to tie up the game. Kicker Jacob Blickhan made the extra point to finish off the comeback for a Saugus team that continues their playoff run after some tough years.
“I’m happy for this group of kids who’ve worked so hard,” Saugus coach Jason Bornn said. There are quite a few young men on this team that were on that 0-10 team [2 seasons ago] and then last year’s 2-8 team. So for them it’s a little sweet redemption. They get an opportunity to move onto the semifinals in this division which is ridiculously challenging… and I’m just excited for the kids, excited for the school.”