Rolling the dice paid off for head coach Mark Torres and the Spartans as they went for the two-point conversion with 25 seconds left in the game to beat the defending district champions, Eastwood, 29-28 Thursday night, Sept. 23 at the SAC. 

“The players wanted it,” Torres said. “They were asking for it before we even scored the touchdown. Gael [Ochoa] and Jake [Ledesma] are the captains, they came and said, coach, let’s get in, and let’s go get two.”

The Spartans started the game by scoring the first touchdown with a 67-yard pass from Gael Ochoa to receiver Jalile Bost, therefore leading 6-0.

 Eastwood had the 14-6 lead, Pebble Hills scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion to end the first half, 14-14. 

After an interception with five minutes left in the game, it looked like the Troopers were going to steal the win, but the effort from senior Erik Marin prevented Eastwood from running it back for a touchdown.

“At practice, we’re always taught to never give up,” junior Jacob Ledesma said. “On our interception, it could’ve easily been a pick-six, thankfully, Erik ran it down and stopped him on the five-yard line.” 

The effort from Marin and the defense to hold down the Troopers from scoring on that series gave quarterback Gael Ochoa one last chance. With the ball on the 2-yard line, the offense drove the ball 98 yards down the field to tie and win the game.  

“You don’t just hold them to 28 points when you have as many misfortunes as we did tonight…the defense played for the offense and the offense played for the defense,” Torres said. “We had each other’s back.”

The Spartans, who are riding a two-game winning streak, have a difficult challenge ahead of them as they face undefeated Eastlake Falcons Friday at the SAC, at 7:00 PM.