BERMUDA DUNES — Two unbeaten teams battled for the Victory League title in the first half of play when Desert Christian High School hosted Desert Chapel on Friday night.

In the second half, however, there was no doubt where the Victory League banner and Desert Storm trophy would go.

After battling to a 20-14 halftime score, the Conquerors completely dominated in the second half, outscoring the Eagles 44-0 en route to a 64-14 homecoming victory.

That triumph gave the Conquerors (7-1, 4-0) the league title and the top seed heading into next week's CIF 8-man playoffs, where Desert Chapel (5-4, 3-1) is the defending champion.

“We didn't have to change anything in the second half,” said Desert Christian senior quarterback Chris Dougherty, who ran for two touchdowns and threw for five more. “We just really executed out there. All of our plays were working.”

The Conquerors struck first when Dougherty hooked up with Justin Young on a 78-yard scoring strike, one of four TDs for the 6-foot-4 junior. The Eagles responded early in the second quarter.

Augie Marshall barreled in from the 2-yard line to knot the game at 6-6, but after Desert Chapel stalled on offense thanks to the Conquerors defensive corps (sparked by Andrew McGalliard, Joey Collings, Brady Brewster and Bobby Melkesian), the winners went back to work.

Desert Christian stayed on the ground and Dougherty blew past the Eagles' defense for a 45-yard scamper into the end zone. A 2-point conversion pass to Josh Curci made it 14-6, but the Eagles fired back.

Quarterback Keaton Hernandez tossed to Marshall for a 5-yard TD and called his own number for the 2-point rush.

However, back came the Conquerors with another Dougherty-to-Young touchdown pass, and Desert Christian never looked back from there.

“We just played our hardest out there and that's been our goal — to win the league championship,” said Young, who finished with four catches for 178 yards and four TDs. “They beat us last year, and we really stepped up our game this year.”

The Conquerors were clicking on all cylinders in the second half, scoring 32 points in the third quarter on passes of 65, 12 and 36 yards, along with TD runs of 43 and 12 yards.

“We didn't take them lightly,” said Conquerors coach Justin Tidwell. “We had to prepare for them. In the second half, we ran the same stuff and made big plays when we had to make big plays.”

Eagles' coach Jeff Welsh tipped his hat to the winners.

“They played one heck of a game,” he said. “We threw everything we had at them, and they had an answer for everything. We tried to adjust and the adjustments just didn't work.”