Los Alamitos falls to SD Cathedral in 1-AA regional play

Los Alamitos’ underclassmen put down their helmets, one by one, at the five-yard line.

Griffins junior running back Kamden Tillis was already overcome with emotion, the reality of a 42-21 loss to San Diego Cathedral in the Division 1-AA regional final sinking in at Los Alamitos as the players said their goodbyes.

“I hate this moment,” said Los Alamitos coach Ray Fenton, who led his program to a 12-3 record and the Southern Section Division 2 title.

Tillis, along with his teammates, hugged each senior at the goal line. Hug after hug. Words of brotherhood drowning out feelings of crushing defeat.

“I loved them to death,” Tillis said of the Griffin seniors.

Los Alamitos defensive end Jackson Renger, who recorded a sack Friday night at Veterans Stadium and helped lead a defensive frenzy to defeat San Clemente a week ago, patted junior linebacker Ko Marasca on the back as he told Renger how much he meant to him.

“These are my best friends,” said Renger.

Faith is built into the bones of Los Alamitos players.

Losses to Mission Viejo and San Clemente slowed the Griffins in the regular season. At every step of its journey to the region, Fenton’s program has been focused.

The Griffins held a 14-7 lead early in Friday’s game, using touchdowns on a 26-yard Colin Creason-to-Ashton Gogue pass and a two-yard quarterback run to set the tone against the Dons.

But as the game reached halftime, the onslaught of Cathedral’s bigger offensive and defensive lines was hard to overcome. The Dons advance to next Friday’s CIF state championship game against Folsom, which defeated San Francisco Riordan 42-38 on Friday night.

Tillis hauled in a 26-yard pass to bring Los Alamitos to the nine-yard line with six seconds left in the first half.

Two punt attempts failed on incomplete passes before a 26-yard field goal attempt went wide. Instead of leading by three points, the Griffins and Dons entered halftime tied at 14.

“We lost momentum,” Fenton said. “We’ve already done that.

Cathedral opened the half with two long touchdown passes from quarterback Brady Palmer to wide receiver Isaac Cook, who finished with 183 yards receiving and three touchdowns, and tied the game with his final connection, a nine-yard touchdown pass with 1:53 left on the clock. The Dons scored 28 unanswered points.

But Tillis never gave up and told himself not to think about the future, he said. Los Alamitos avoided a second-half goose egg with a 45-yard touchdown run from the 5-foot-11 tailback.

For Creason, in a season where, Fenton said, many believed Los Alamitos wouldn’t finish with a winning record, the Griffins exceeded their own expectations by reaching the regional final.

“We’ve already gotten what we wanted to get, but I mean, this year has been magical,” the Griffins senior signal caller said.

And for Fenton, he’s thankful for the ride Los Alamitos brought him in 2025.

“When you don’t have that expectation on yourself and that pressure to win every game, you’re going to get better every day,” Fenton said. “All of a sudden I looked up and I was like, my God, we’re in the final. I honestly didn’t know we were in the finals. It was just another game where we thought we were in the final.”