GARDEN GROVE – James Anema’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Addison Adams with less than a minute to play gave Pacifica a 7-3 victory over La Cañada Friday in the CIF-SS playoffs and redeemed a Legendary Mariners defensive effort. .

The Mariners (6-5) held La Cañada (8-3) to three scores and 158 total yards and intercepted three passes, but had nothing to show for it until Anema’s pass hit Adams just inside the goal line for a touchdown with 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter of the Division 10 first round playoff game.

“They’re a very good football team, and they’re very well coached,” Pacifica coach Kyle Murphy said of La Cañada. “They made a lot of plays, and ultimately we had to make one more play than them.”

In fact, it was two rooms. The first came when Pacifica linebacker Tyler Alvarado intercepted a Joe Bell pass and returned it 7 yards to the La Cañada 17 with 3:34 remaining.

Anema, who had been intercepted twice in the end zone, found Adams for a 9-yard gain to the 8, then three plays later found him again, hitting him with a low pass just inside the end zone.

“We wanted to leave as little time as possible and work to get a score,” Murphy said. “Adams was the main one. So when the quarterback goes for it, the first look he gets is this flat rout and if he’s open, he gets the ball.

Murphy said the defensive goal was to contain Bell. The sophomore completed his first eight passes, but had no carries to rely on. Pacifica limited the Spartans to 20 yards rushing.

Pacifica’s Armando Torres, who intercepted three passes in a game earlier this season, got the first turnover when he caught a pass from Bell with 9:11 left in the fourth quarter, just moments after Louis Drobis spotted Anema in the end zone. Spartans’ third pick.

Bell’s final shot for La Cañada ended up in the hands of Pacifica’s Jakub Davis, who intercepted Bell at the Pacifica 25 with 7 seconds remaining.