SAN DIEGO -- Hector Carrillo missed his first extra-point attempt Tuesday afternoon, but the Valley Center High senior kicker had a gut feeling he was going to get a chance to redeem himself.

He was correct.

Carrillo drilled a 30-yard field goal with one minute, 45 seconds remaining to give the Jaguars a hard-fought, 39-36 victory over Brawley in the CIF Division III championship game before a large and enthusiastic crowd at Qualcomm Stadium.

The victory capped an unbeaten season for the No. 4-seeded Jaguars (11-0-2), giving them the first football title in the school's seven-year history.

Carrillo's boot, his 12th field goal of the season, capped a 14-play, 66-yard drive that consumed nearly six minutes and gave Brawley little time to respond. The top-seeded Wildcats (12-1) had only one timeout remaining.

"The coaches talked to me after the PAT and told me to forget about it," Carrillo said. "I could tell on that last drive it was going to come down to me. Honestly, I wasn't nervous. I do that all the time.

"The team depends on me to make those kicks, just like I depend on them to put me in a position to make it."

Junior defensive back Nate Porter sealed the championship when he intercepted Justin Baeza's pass on Brawley's first pass after the field goal. It was Porter's eighth interception of the season.

"At the snap of the ball, I saw the tight end blocking," Porter said. "From watching film, I knew that when the tight end blocks, the wide receiver on my side runs a deep post. So I jumped into his lane and the ball came right to me. Brawley was tough. They hammered us, but I think we hammered back."

The Wildcats and Jaguars traded touchdowns early with Brawley leading 14-12 before Valley Center took its first lead on a 32-yard pass from Dustin Aschbrenner to Kevin Schwerdtfeger with 5:28 to play in the first half.

Valley Center's 19-14 advantage held up until Carrillo's 33-yard field goal to start the third quarter made it 22-14. The margin swelled to 29-14 when Jordan Armstrong recovered a muffed Brawley punt return in the end zone.

Brawley struck back on a 48-yard scoring run by Zay Shepherd. The Wildcats tied the game 29-29 when Marty Mohamed blocked a punt. Mike Mohamed recovered and returned it 5 yards for a touchdown.

Valley Center regained the lead when Aschbrenner hit Schwerdtfeger with a 13-yard TD pass with 9:42 to play, capping an 80-yard drive with 9:42 to play.

Three plays later, Marty Mohamed took a pitch and raced 87 yards down the sideline to tie the game again, 36-36.

"That was a great football game with a lot of big plays," Valley Center coach Rob Gilster said. "We have a great group of kids, a group that plays very well together, picks each other up. I can't tell you what this means to this team and our community."

Brawley was penalized 13 times for 101 yards, and quarterback Justin Baeza was just 6-for-14. He had a 61 percent completion rate entering the game.

Shepherd, who came into the game with a CIF-San Diego Section record 40 touchdowns, managed one score and 106 yards on 15 carries.

"We made too many mistakes" Brawley coach John Bishop said. "We played hard against a good team, but we had too many kids with wide eyes."

Contact staff writer John Maffei at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.