Griffins Grow Up in Victory : Prep football: Los Alamitos overcomes inexperience as it rallies to defeat Tustin, 21-13.

Sometime late in November, the Los Alamitos football team will probably be playing for a Sunset League championship and preparing to make a run in the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

If so, players, coaches and fans might point to a 21-13 victory over Tustin Thursday night at Long Beach Veterans Stadium as the catapult that launched the Griffins’ season.

In a battle charged with all the atmosphere of the playoffs, No. 2-ranked Los Alamitos overcame an uncharacteristically anemic offense and scored 14 second-half points. In the process, a youthful, inexperienced team grew up.

“This team came of age in the second half,” Griffin Coach John Barnes said. “We don’t get many games where we have to battle and grind like this. I’m happy.”

True, Griffin fans are used to seeing Los Alamitos pile up gaudy offensive statistics, such as those in a 42-16 rout over the Tillers last season.

But Los Alamitos began the season with no returning starters on offense, only one on defense. The halftime numbers Thursday reflected the inexperience: Los Alamitos had only 71 yards in 14 plays, made only three first downs had the ball for only 6:02. The Griffins trailed, 13-7, and their lone score came on Adam Nauta’s 89-yard kickoff return to open the game.

At halftime, however, the new players shed their rookie status.

“I told them they needed to start expecting to win,” Barnes said. “I could see that for 2 1/2 weeks we were jittery and went out there thinking the other team was going to give it to us. I told them they needed to go and take it.”

And with a staunch defensive stand to open the second half, capped by a Rudy Sedano interception on the third play of the third quarter, the growing pains ended.

Los Alamitos scored two plays after Sedano’s interception, on a seven-yard run by quarterback Mike Sanford for a 14-13 lead.

The defense took over from there, shutting down a Tustin attack that had run at will in the first half. The Tillers (1-3) had 226 yards in the first half, 51 in the second.

Sanford connected with receiver Steve Shinen on a 13-yard pass play early in the fourth quarter to complete the scoring.

For Tustin, which has played arguably the toughest nonleague schedule in the county with losses to Servite and La Puente Bishop Amat before Thursday, it was a frustrating defeat.

“It’s really discouraging that we’re 1-3,” Tiller Coach Myron Miller said. “We’re so close to being a good football team, but we just gotta win a big game.”

The Tillers had two second-half drives in Los Alamitos territory that ended on missed fourth-down conversions. Mike Zill had 87 yards in 17 carries for Tustin.