BIG BEAR — The Baldwin Park football team braved the snow and 20-degree weather when it traveled up the mountains to Big Bear to take on the Bears in the CIF Southern Section Division 11 quarterfinals.

In what was thought to be one of the biggest home-field advantages in their playoff bracket, the cold weather played no factor as Baldwin Park jumped out to a 21-point lead early in the first half and didn’t look back, as they defeated Big Bear 28-21 on Friday night.

The Braves (7-5) will be back on the road in the semifinals. They will travel to Orange County to face Portola, which defeated Santa Paula in the quarterfinals.

Big Bear (8-3) came close to tying the game after being down by 21 points at the half, but Baldwin Park forced a fumble and recovered with 3:46 left in the game.

Quarterback Jake Garcia accounted for every Baldwin Park touchdown. He threw for three touchdowns and rushed for one. Garcia has now accounted for eight touchdowns in the Braves’ two playoff games.

“This one feels good. None of us ever played football in the snow,” Garcia exclaimed. “For us to come out here and battle adversity, playing in elements that we’ve never played before, we did a helluva job.”

Despite the cold weather, the Braves came out and weren’t afraid to air it out. Garcia hit Randle Tebo for a 25-yard gain on the first play of the game, which was indicative of Baldwin Park’s offensive game plan.

“That’s just my coaches. They believe in me and believe in what I could do,” Garcia said. “Never once did we stick to running during this week’s practice. We just believed in our receivers and believed in our linemen.”

After Garcia took an 8-yard carry in for a touchdown on the Braves’ opening drive, Baldwin Park tacked on another touchdown at the end of the first quarter when Garcia hit Tremell Horn for the first of two touchdowns Horn would score.

Horn finished the game with over 60 yards receiving and two touchdowns.

Baldwin Park jumped out to a 28-7 lead in the second quarter and were driving toward another score when Garcia threw an interception in the end zone with less than a minute to go in the first half.

Braves head coach Robert Maxie said that besides that turnover, Garcia was the catalyst for the Baldwin Park offense, especially in the weather.

“I expected him not to turn the ball over, but we will work on that,” Maxie said. “He didn’t do anything tonight that we didn’t expect him to or hasn’t been doing all year.”

Big Bear came out a different team in the second half. The Bears scored 14 consecutive points to start the second half and cut the deficit to 28-21 with 10:37 left in the fourth quarter.

Although the Braves were shut out in the second half, they had some clutch plays. Garcia had a 13-yard run on third-and-12 with 8:30 left in the game to keep a Braves drive moving as they were backed up deep in their own territory.

Maxie said he wants to see better from his team in the second half in its next game.

“We didn’t execute in the second half like we would like. We didn’t score any points,” Maxie said. “We didn’t take care of the football. We didn’t block well, didn’t tackle well. Those are things that can lose a football game, but we made plays when it counts and that’s all that matters.”