Del Norte survived four overtime possessions and finally defeated Rancho Bernardo, 49-43, last week, tying a 46-44 Granite Hills victory over Helix in 2022 for the longest game ever played by a San Diego County team.
Existing rules are that each team has four downs beginning at the 25-yard line with straight football rules. Simply put, score and your opponent has to score or the game is over.
Overtime essentially became part of the landscape when the state CIF invoked a “California Tie-Breaker” in 1968, but there had been overtime, or discussion of overtime or tie-breakers, years before, such as in the 1927 small schools championship between Grossmont and Calexico.
In 1975 Madison and Point Loma played what may have been the first to go to an extra session in the San Diego Section regular season. Madison was credited with a 1-0 victory. Kearny advanced in a 1974 playoff with Sweetwater that ended in a 14-14 tie. The Komets had a 12-10 advantage in first downs at the end of four quarters, but there would be no overtime.
San Diego High’s 1955 championship involved one of the epic games in Southern Section history.
The Cavemen and Anaheim were deadlocked at 20 when the game ended but San Diego advanced because it had a 17-14 advantage in first downs, the “tiebreaker” that had been in effect for decades.
The San Diego Section adopted the “new” California tiebreaker in 1976 and overtimes in playoffs would be implemented. Overtimes originally were officially declared ties, no matter if one team outscored the other. That non-tiebreaker was dropped in the 1980s.
Several years ago the Grossmont Conference began counting the results of overtime play as a team win or loss and eventually all San Diego Section schools followed.
Since 1976 there have been 107 overtime games in the San Diego Section. Seventy-eight have been decided in the first overtime, 23 in the second, four in the third, and two in the fourth.
John Maffei’s Week 8 Union-Tribune Poll:
Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
*First-place votes.
NR–Not ranked.
Last entries in columns are previous rankings.
Max Preps‘ and Cal-Hi Sports‘ are state rankings.
| RANK | TEAM/RECORD | POINTS | MAXPREPS.COM | CALPREPS.COM | CAL-HI SPORTS |
| 1. | Lincoln (7-0) | *18/288/1 | 8/9 | 59.1/57.7 | 6/7 |
| 2. | Carlsbad (6-0) | *12/280/2 | 7/10 | 60.3/58.2 | 7/8 |
| 3. | Granite Hills (6-0) | 231/3 | 29/30 | 42.7/41.2 | 24/25 |
| 4. | Helix (7-0) | 223/4 | 15/15 |
50.8/48.5 | 16/17 |
| 5. | La Costa Canyon (5-1) | 173/6 | 61/80 | 31.1/23.9 | On Bubble/NR |
| 6. | Mission Hills (4-2) | 142/5 | 44/45 | 35.9/31 | On Bubble/On Bubble |
| 7. | Cathedral (2-5) | 91/8 | 78/77 | 26/24.3 | NR/NR |
| 8. | Torrey Pines (4-2) | 60/NR | 88 | 24.7 | NR/NR |
| 9 | Del Norte (5-1) | 55/NR | 80 | 26.4 | NR/NR |
| 10. | El Camino (4-2) | 43/7 | 100/95 | 21.3 | NR/NR |
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Mater Dei (3-3, 40 points), St. Augustine (3-3, 11), Mount Miguel (6-1, 8), Madison (2-4, 5),Mission Bay (6-1, 2). Ramona (3-2, 2).
29 sportswriters, sportscasters, administrators from San Diego County, plus Max Preps.com.
- John Maffei (San Diego Union-Tribune).
- Don Norcross, Steve Brand, Rick Hoff, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez , Freelance contributors.
- Brandon Stone, Allison Edmonds, John Carroll (KUSI, Channel 51).
- Rick Smith (partletonsports.com).
- Adam Paul (EastCountySports.com).
- Bodie DeSilva (ScorebookLive.com).
- John Kentera, Braden Suprenant (97.3-FM The Fan).
- Steve (Biff) Dolan (Mountain Country 107.9-FM).
- Christian Pedersen (San Diego Sports Association).
- Troy Hirsch, Nic Pollino (Fox 5 San Diego).
- Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez (CIF San Diego Section).
- Mike Dolan, Rex Johnson, Bruce Ward (CIF Advisory Committee).
- Joe Evangelist (San Diego Coaching Legends Committee).
- Will Torrez (Valley Sports Network).
- Tom Ronco (Imperial Valley Press).
- Raymond Brown (SDfootball.net).
- Tom Helmantoler (Southern Conference Advisor).
- Max Preps.
