MIKE CARRILLO, (20) Orange County’s top rusher, had 170 yards in the Argonauts’ 46-22 win over West High of Torrance Friday night (Tribune photo by Christopher Abdelmalek).

By Christopher Abdelmalek

Garden Grove High School’s powerhouse football team opened CIF-SS playoff action Friday night and continued its winning ways, beating West High of Torrance 46-22 at Monsoor Stadium.

The Division 9 win improved the Argonaut record to 10-1 and will send Grove into a second round game against Aliso Niguel (also 10-1) on Nov. 9. The Wolverines defeated 45-20  in their first round game.

“Playing a team we have never played before, we wanted to show them what Orange County football is all about,” Coach Ricardo Cepeda said after the victory. “People know what Garden Grove football is all about. We run the ball and play defense.”

The game started off with a bang as the Argos marched down the field on their first possession to the tune of 84 yards and a touchdown. All the yards were on the ground with big chunk of it coming on a 65 yards scamper by running back Mike Carrillo who capped it with the TD.

Quarterback Jacob Zazueta also chipped in with a rushing touchdown in the first half on a 25-yard keeper to put Garden Grove up 13-0. The Argos would add another touchdown by running back Jordan Sanchez to go up 20-0 at halftime.

Carrillo added a second touchdown in the third quarter and finished with over 170 yards rushing and Sanchez added two more scores in the fourth quarter including a 52-yard touchdown run to seal the game. The rushing attack was the key to victory tonight for the Argos.

“People were surprised by Jordan,” Cepeda said. “We have been training him for this to give Mikey a break in the playoffs, we let him out of his shell today.”

The defense for the Argonauts stepped up tonight with four interceptions on the night against Warriors’ quarterback Brandon Poffenbarger. His stats may be a bit misleading as he did finish with three passing touchdowns, two to running back Xerxes Reamer. However, all these scores came in garbage time against the second unit of Garden Grove’s defense.