Saugus secures playoff spot with 42-14 win over Castaic 

By Matt Lechuga 

For The Signal 

Saugus came off its bye week with one thing on its mind: Get the win and secure the third and final automatic bid in the Foothill League.  

After a turnover-filled first half, the Centurions stabilized by focusing on the run game, controlling the ball and the clock en route to a 42-14 win over host Castaic in their Foothill League finale.  

“It’s not as clean as we would have liked but that falls on us as coaches,” said Saugus head coach Jason Bornn. “We need to do a better job of preparing our kids to compete at the highest level, regardless of who we’re playing and the situation. But we’ll take the win.” 

The momentum was back and forth the entire first half, with Castaic giving up a 1-yard touchdown to senior running back Mono Ortega, then intercepting quarterback Zach Barnes in the end zone on the next series, only to fumble the ball on the very next play and give Ortega another 1-yard rushing touchdown to make the Saugus lead 14-0 going into the second quarter.  

The teams battled to a stalemate until, with about 35 seconds left to play in the half, Barnes was intercepted for the second time by Tristan Arriaga, this time resulting in a 40-yard interception return that cut the Saugus lead to 14-7 going into the half. 

“The first half they were doing some stuff they hadn’t really shown a ton of in the previous game films and we continued to try to force it down there and that led to three interceptions,” said Bornn. “So at halftime we went and looked at what they were doing and what we needed to do and running the ball became the priority in the second half.” 

That’s when the spotlight hit Ortega, as he carried the ball on eight of 11 plays to open the second half, the last carry an 8-yard run for his third and final touchdown of the night. Ortega led the Centurions, carrying the ball 21 times for 168 yards and three scores.  

After a quick Castaic three-and-out, it was Ortega again with five straight carries and setting up a 3-yard touchdown run for quarterback Brayden Connelly on the option keeper to make the score 28-7 going into the final frame. 

“We just had to regroup during halftime, come out and get our minds right, and execute,” said Ortega. “The play calls just happened to be all runs and I relied on my line, they were doing their thing, and I got my yards.” 

The Centurions scored twice more on the ground, a 5-yard run by Barnes and a 7-yard run by Jeremiah Caradine to make the final score 42-14 and secure Saugus’ spot in the playoffs.  

For Castaic head coach Sirr Guy Shakir, the end of this season is bittersweet. Completing his fourth year as the Coyotes head coach, he was able to see his first batch of seniors off with some good memories. 

“This group was special to me personally because it was my first group,” Shakir said. “Seeing them come in as pups and leaving as men, playing the game the right way. It was good to see them going out competing for each other.”