The San Diego Young Aztecs won two games over the weekend - neither easy - to complete a late-season surge to get the 3rd playoff spot out of the Gold South.

On Saturday the Young Aztecs edged Try-City 30-25. And then on Sunday they needed a win over the Irvine Rhinos, and got one 43-26.

In the painfully short SoCal club season, the Young Aztecs have only had two league games before this weekend, said Coach Bob McFayden, but they have started to come together.

McFayden has gotten consistently strong play from many veteran players like Lole Veimau, Ryan Shogan, Damen Kholi, Vince Camaguy, Satchel Collins, Belix Guerra Parker Rogers, Cameron Yaghoubi and Patrick Madden, complemented by newcomers such as Stephan Phillips, Riley Steed, and John Hickman.

Captain and HS All American Patrick Madden has played very well leading up to Sunday's match, but going into this do-or-die weekend, the coaches asked him to do more.

"I challenged Patrick to play a complete Patrick Madden game, which he had not delivered 100% since the Fullerton tournament," said McFayden said. "I asked him for it and he stepped it up yesterday, but today versus the Rhinos Patrick just blew me away with his performance! Unlike the first two games of season where Patrick struggled with finding touch at times, he made the necessary corrections this week after we talked about it. After last week's game and though this past week Patrick took the time to work on that deficiency on his own."

The results were easy to see, and the Young Aztecs responded as a group, tackling well and showing some nifty back play.

Against the Rhinos, Madden opened the scoring with a try, that he converted. The Rhinos replied with two tries for a 12-7 lead, but Steed touched down and Madden added the extras and a penalty to stake the Aztecs to a 17-12 halftime lead.

The Rhinos started the second half on fire and two converted tries put them up 26-17. But a try from Madden, and four penalty goals made it 36-26 with time winding down. Aldo McGrath's try finished it off, and Madden, of course, converted, giving him 33 of his team's 43 points on the day.

So that sets up the playoffs for next weekend. 

The Coastal Dragons (4-0) will host Belmont Shore (4-3 and 25-0 winners over SFV)

Back Bay (5-1 and 47-7 winners over Santa Clarita) will host Los Angeles (4-2 and 57-17 winners over Pasadena)

The San Diego Mustangs (3-1) will visit Orca U18s (8-0)

Santa Monica (7-0) will host the Young Aztecs (2-2)