Monterey Trail High School’s amazing football season, like the old Timex watch commercials, just keeps on ticking.

The Mustangs’ defense pressured Luther Burbank’s offense into making several mistakes last Friday at Mark Macres Memorial Stadium and came up with a handful of key plays to win its second round Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoff game over the Titans, 22-8.

Offensively, it was the matchup of two teams that ran a veer offense, albeit with two different looks. The two schools featured football teams that only recently have become programs that have tasted some success.

T.J. Ewing started the football program at Monterey Trail when the school opened slightly more than five years ago. At one stretch, the Mustangs had lost 18 straight varsity games.

Last season, despite a 3-7 regular season record, Monterey Trail qualified for the playoffs for the first time in school history but lost to Laguna Creek in the first round.

Burbank won its first and only Metro Conference championship after some 40 years, upsetting Grant in a regular season game, in 2007. Last season, Burbank finished as runner-up to the Pacers in the Division II championship game. This year, the Titans were 7-4, its only league loss, again, to Grant.

Even so, head coach John Heffernan was visibly upset with the play of his young team, especially in the second half when the Titans pulled to within seven of the Mustangs with a couple chances to take the lead.

“It was a microcosm of the whole season - we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities,” Heffernan said. “It was a bad night all around.”

It was tough, too, for Heffernan to lose to Ewing, his childhood football rival, against whom he had played since both were in middle school.  The two coaches grew up in San Mateo.

Ewing says the two teams really knew each other prior to Friday’s first-ever meeting between the two schools on a football field.

“We work with each other all summer and our squads know each other’s stuff,” Ewing said. “This was a good, hard-fought football game.”

But the play of the Titan offense really had Heffernan fit-to-be-tied. Burbank committed three turnovers - two interceptions and one lost fumble - was 0-for-7 on third down conversions and 0-for-3 on fourth downs.

Quarterback Tu’uta Inoke was 7 of 16 passing for 143 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He was constantly pressured by the Mustang front and was sacked five times for a total loss of 46 yards.

After the Mustangs scored on its first drive of the game, a 12-play, 77-yard march, capped by Drake Tofi’s seven-yard run, Burbank got the ball, trailing 8-0. The Mustang defense came up with two big stops on fourth down on consecutive possessions by the Titans to set the tone for the game.

On a fourth-and-three at the Monterey Trail 11-yard line, Inoke was stopped by Kalamani Fili two yards shy of the first down.

Monterey Trail’s offense then drove the ball back into Burbank territory but gave it up on downs at the Titan 32.

Burbank drove the ball back into Mustang territory and on a fourth-and-goal at the Monterey Trail 3, Lamin Wilson tackled running back Terrance Mitchell at the 1.

Monterey Trail answered with a 99-yard drive in eight plays.

In his only pass completion of the game, quarterback Michael Calvan looped a rainbow for Evan Favors who caught the ball along the sideline and outran the Titan defenders for a 66-yard touchdown.  Monterey Trail led 15-0 at halftime.

But, Burbank wasn’t about to quit. The Mustangs helped that along.

Victor Amerson recovered a Monterey Trail fumble early in the third quarter at Burbank’s 41.  The Titans were on the scoreboard three plays later when Inoke and Mitchell hooked up on a 27-yard pass play for a touchdown. Mitchell ran across for the two-point conversion to narrow the gap to 15-8.

Ewing had his team keep the ball on the ground and burn time off the clock. They gave up the ball on downs after 14 plays and 7 minutes later at the Titan 25.

Burbank moved the ball out to the Monterey Trail 35, but Inoke had the ball pried from his hands by Sione Sina and the Mustangs recovered.

Later in the fourth quarter, Inoke was intercepted by Ethan Clark at the Monterey Trail 46. They put a nail into the Titan’s season with Calvan’s 24-yard quarterback keeper with only 2:24 left in the game.