Eagles 42 - Bellarmine Prep 37
Santa Margarita storms to state title
CARSON, CA., December 16, 2011 – Johnny Stanton directed one last comeback Friday night, and this one lifted Santa Margarita to a state championship.
The junior quarterback scored on a 1-yard dive on fourth down with 16 seconds to lift the Eagles past Bellarmine of San Jose, 42-37, in the CIF State Division 1 bowl championship at Home Depot Center.
Stanton guided Santa Margarita (13-2) on an 80-yard scoring drive in the final 1:46 of the fourth quarter. On the drive, he completed two key passes and broke 22-yard run on a draw to the Bells 9 with 1:03 remaining.
Bellarmine (12-2) held Stanton on his 2-point conversion but a sack near midfield by Santa Margarita defensive lineman Mack Pierson ended the game and sealed a third state bowl victory for Eagles coach Harry Welch.
Welch also claimed state bowl victories with St. Margaret's and Canyon of Canyon Country.
"Our team has shown so much resiliency throughout this whole season, especially the playoffs," Stanton said. "Mission game, San Clemente game and this game. It's just a dream come true, having those three games back-to-back-to-back."
In a 21-20 victory against Mission Viejo in the semifinals, Stanton directed a fourth-quarter comeback and scored on a late, 1-yard dive similar to one that beat Bellarmine. The Eagles also rallied in the first half against San Clemente to claim the Pac-5 final.
"That was incredible," Welch said of Friday's comeback. "All the words that people say - that you want to hear - they demonstrated that tonight. Character. Class. Staying together. They believed in one another. They executed the offense. They just showed so much poise."
On the Eagles' final drive Friday, Stanton lofted a 2-and-10 pass to wide receiver River Cracraft for a 36-yard gain. Cracraft caught the ball near midfield and recovered his fumble at the Bellarmine 44 with 1:29 left. Two plays later, Stanton zipped a pass to Cracraft on a short crossing pattern, moving the ball to 31 with 1:14 left.
Stanton's draw powered the Eagles to the Bellarmine 9 with 1:03 remaining but the Eagles still had work left. Three running plays left Santa Margarita with a fourth-and-goal at the 1 in the closing seconds. The Eagles called time out with 17 seconds left.
Field goal or go for it? That was the decision.
"We ain't going to kick it -- what the (heck)," Santa Margarita assistant coach Marty Spalding said. "Let's run it in."
And that's what Stanton did - stretching the ball over the top of the pile and into the end zone.
"You've got Johnny Stanton who is so, so powerful and undeniable," Spalding said. "And the offensive line is the best."
Stanton finished with state bowl record-tying four touchdown passes and ran for two more. He completed 14 of 25 passes for 309 yards and also rushed for 69 yards on 20 carries.
Bellarmine took a 37-36 lead with 1:46 left on a 1-yard touchdown run by running back Justin Taliaferro. The score and extra-point by Travis McHugh came after a juggling reception by Joe Gigantino sparked the Bells' 13-play, 74-yard drive.
"Never played a team like that," said Cracraft, who finished with eight receptions for a Division 1 bowl-record 187 yards. "That's great team over there. I'm happy with the results."
The Pac-5 Division champion Eagles were pushed so hard, they had to rally twice in the fourth quarter.
They first had to make up a 30-21 deficit early in the fourth period.
But Santa Margarita scored twice during a one-minute stretch of the final period to not only make up the deficit but take a short-lived lead.
Stanton scored with a 1-yard touchdown run with 6:52 left in the fourth quarter and added a 2-point conversion as the Eagles took a 36-30 lead.
Stanton's score came after Santa Margarita linebacker Matt Andersen intercepted McHugh at the Bells 17 and returned the ball to the 1 with 6:55 left.
"Humongous," Welch said of Andersen interception. "We had so many mistakes. It was as if we're trying so hard, we keep making mistakes and they're not making them. And then, oh, my, gosh. I went, 'They made one. They made one. ... There's hope. There's hope.' "
Santa Margarita trailed, 30-21, when it took possession at its 20 with 9:45 left in the fourth quarter. Stanton capped an eight-play, 80-yard drive with a 32-yard touchdown pass to Connor O'Brien with 7:52 left. The score trimmed Bellarmine's lead to 30-28, and set the stage for Andersen's interception.
Bellarmine took a 24-21 lead into the fourth quarter and scored 2:10 into the period to make it a two-score game. Taliaferro capped a quick, 53-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to take a 30-21 lead. The extra point failed.
The second half didn't open well for Santa Margarita. A penalty on the kickoff wiped out much of a 57-yard return by the Eagles' Ryan Wolpin. Santa Margarita was whistled for another penalty before Gigantino sacked Stanton on his 4.
After a near-safety, Santa Margarita's John McGrory blasted a 57-yard punt, but Bellarmine kept the pressure on. The Bells drove for a 24-yard field goal by McHugh to take a 24-21 lead with 6:25 left in the third.
Santa Margarita's defense forced the field goal after Bellarmine had earned a first-and-goal at the Eagles 7.
Santa Margarita's defense also came up big after the Eagles lost their third fumble on their next possession. Bellarmine recovered a fumble at the Santa Margarita 37 but the Eagles' forced a three-and-out.
In the first half, Bellarmine capitalized on an early fumble by Santa Margarita to take a 7-0 lead about three minutes into the opening quarter. On their first possession, the Eagles lost a fumble at their 18. Two plays later, Bellarmine running back Conner Jauch took an option pitch from McHugh and sprinted into the corner of the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown run.
Santa Margarita offered a swift response. Stanton capped a seven-play, 80-yard drive with a 31-yard touchdown pass to Cracraft with 6:52 left in the opening frame.
Santa Margarita then received a spark from its defense. Cornerback Konner Kafentzis tackled running back Tim Crawley short of a first down on a fourth-and-4 from the Eagles 35 with 3:31 left in the first quarter.
Stanton stayed hot on the ensuing possession. He connected with Wolpin for a 33-yard gain. Two plays later, Stanton scrambled, stepped up in the pocket and threw a 41-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Sean Modster with 2:18 left in the first period. McGrory kicked the extra point as Santa Margarita took a 14-7 lead.
But Bellarmine succeed on its next fourth-down attempt and tied the score early in the second quarter. McHugh broke a 46-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-short to knot the score, 14-14, less than a minute into the second. McHugh faked a pitch before breaking through the line of scrimmage.
Like Stanton, McHugh showed plenty of burst to finish the run.
"(McHugh) is a man," Welch said of a senior, who finished with 152 yards rushing and 165 passing. "He's fast. He's tough, and he runs that (double-wing) offense so well."
Stanton and Santa Margarita's offense had another response. The Eagles chewed up the next 4:38 in driving for a 9-yard touchdown pass by Stanton to Cracraft.
Santa Margarita ran 12 plays in opening a 21-14 lead and showed some of its trademark, methodical offense.
But Bellarmine kept pace on its next possession. The left-handed McHugh rolled to his right and tossed a 40-yard touchdown pass to Jauch to tie the score, 21-21, with 3:15 left in the first half.
The offensive shootout was on, but Bellarmine forced a second turnover before halftime. The Eagles lost a fumble at their 39 with 1:51 left in the second quarter but Bellarmine couldn't capitalize. The Bells drove to the Eagles 9 before time expired.
Santa Margarita finished with 407 yards offense while Bellarmine had 401. Santa Margarita linebacker Sammy Gibbs finished with a Division 1 state bowl-record 16 total tackles, including seven solo.
Friday also marked the final game for Spalding, 64. The legendary offensive line coach said he decided retire to spend time and travel with his wife, Pam.
"I end my career with the biggest prize possible," said Spalding, who was part of CIF titles at El Toro, Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills. "That's special."
And the comeback by Santa Margarita on Friday night also seemed fitting for a program that was 3-7 in 2009, the season before the arrival of Harry Welch.
"Who would have thought (this was possible) two years ago," Welch said. "We tried so hard tonight. So hard. And we didn't play our best game but in a way, it was really fitting that we came from so far back at the end when we needed to and won the state championship. ... We're state champions and we earned it."
| Santa Margarita | 14 | 7 | 0 | 21 | 42 |
| Bellarmine Prep | 7 | 14 | 3 | 13 | 37 |
BP – Jauch 14 run (McHugh kick)
SM – Cracraft 31 pass from Stanton (McGrory kick)
SM – Modster 41 pass from Stanton (McGrory kick)
BP – McHugh 46 run (McHugh kick)
SM – Cracraft 9 pass from Stanton (McGrory kick)
BP – Jauch 40 pass from McHugh (McHugh kick)
BP – McHugh 24 FG
BP – Taliaferro 3 run (McHugh kick failed)
SM – O'Brien 32 pass from Stanton (McGrory kick)
SM – Stanton 1 run (McGrory kick)
BP – Taliaferro 1 run (McHugh kick)
SM – Stanton 1 run (McGrory kick)
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Rushing: SM - Stanton 20-69, Wolpin 6-11, Modster 2-21, Suchesk 1-0; BP - McHugh 21-140, Crawley 11-20, Taliaferro 15-53, Jauch 4-21
Passing: SM - Stanton 14-25-0-306; BP - McHugh 9-14-1-165, Jauch 0-1-0-0
Receiving: SM - Cracraft 8-187, Wolpin 1-33, O'Brien 4-45, Modster 1-41; BP - Crawley 1-28, Manigo 1-27, Jauch 2-44, Vallner 2-25
By Dan Albano
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Orange County Register
Eagles win a thriller for CIF Division 1 crown
CARSON, CA., December 16, 2011 – Johnny Stanton, Santa Margarita’s standout junior quarterback, has a profile on Twitter.com that reads: “Hi. I have a severely limited social life because I play football. Will you be my friend?”
He had only 85 followers Friday night when he tweeted two hours before the CIF state championship Division I bowl game: “One last time. Win state.”
Let me predict that JohnnyStanton4 is going to have followers growing by the dozens this weekend, because he has become his school’s most recognizable athlete on campus after leading the Eagles to a 42-37 victory over San Jose Bellarmine before 7,624 at the Home Depot Center.
Stanton had four touchdown passes and scored the winning touchdown on a one-yard dive on fourth-and-goal with 16 seconds left.
Stanton and Bellarmine quarterback Travis McHugh aren’t related but they might as well be identical twins. They are two quarterbacks with straight-As on their report cards who run, pass and lead their teams with amazing similarity. They engaged in a memorable duel, each refusing to back down.
The 6-foot-3 McHugh rose up in the second half to help Bellarmine open a 30-21 lead. He made a 24-yard field goal with 4:06 left in the third quarter to break a 21-21 tie. His 28-yard screen pass to Tim Crawley set up a three-yard touchdown run by Justin Taliaferro with 9:50 left.
Back came Stanton, who fired a 32-yard touchdown pass to Connor O’Brien with 7:52 left to pull the Eagles to within two, 30-28. Then Mike Andersen intercepted a McHugh pass at the 17 and returned it to the one-yard line. Stanton scored with 6:52 left and added a two-point conversion run for a 36-30 lead.
McHugh then drove the Bells 74 yards, with Taliaferro scoring on a one-yard run with 1:46 left. McHugh’s conversion kick made it Bellarmine 37, Santa Margarita 36.
Santa Margarita Coach Harry Welch won his third bowl game with his third school, an achievement unlikely to be matched for years to come.
Repetition, hard work and discipline are the tenets preached by Welch. Santa Margarita, however, made some uncharacteristic mistakes, losing three fumbles and committing a couple drive-killing penalties.
Bellarmine’s pass rush produced four sacks of Stanton, who struggled in the second half.
Bellarmine took a 24-21 lead with 4:06 left on a 24-yard field goal by McHugh. Santa Margarita’s offense couldn’t move the ball in its first three possessions of the third quarter. The Bells were rushing only three players and started making sure Santa Margarita’s receivers stayed covered.
What a shootout it was in the first half, with the quarterbacks orchestrating every move for their respective teams in a 21-21 deadlock.
Stanton had touchdown passes of 31 and 10 yards to River Cracraft and 41 yards to Sean Modster. He finished 14 of 25 for 306 yards. McHugh ran 47 yards for a touchdown and passed 40 yards to Conner Jauch for Bellarmine. McHugh ran for 140 yards and passed for 165 yards.
The big difference was two fumbles by Santa Margarita. Bellarmine recovered a bad handoff on the second offensive play by the Eagles on the 18, setting up a 14-yard touchdown run by Jauch. Santa Margarita survived a second fumble in the second quarter by Cracraft when the Bells ran out of timeouts and ended the half on the Santa Margarita nine-yard line.
Stanton was near flawless passing in the first half, completing nine of 13 for 198 yards. McHugh rushed for 68 yards and was seven of 10 for 115 yards before halftime.
By Eric Sondheimer
Saturday, December 17, 2011
The Los Angeles Times
Santa Margarita survives surprise attack to win
CARSON, CA., December 16, 2011 – This was not the Bellarmine football team they showed us in the brochure.
This was supposed to be a team that ran the double-wing offense, the Bellarmine of San Jose team that Santa Margarita played Friday night in the Division 1 game of the CIF State Championship Bowl games at Home Depot Center.
Bellarmine quarterback Travis McHugh went into the game averaging 105 rushing yards a game, and 66 passing yards a game. He had thrown 11 touchdown passes over 13 games. Those are not unusual statistics for a quarterback operating in the run-heavy double-wing offense.
McHugh passed for 115 yards and a touchdown against Santa Margarita – in the first half.
Santa Margarita had to overcome so much to beat Bellarmine, 42-37, in a dramatic game that proved again that a high school football game can be the best reality show imaginable.
The Eagles were often out of sync offensively in the first half. Having played very mistake-free football through its four CIF-Southern Section victories that took Santa Margarita to the CIF-SS Pac-5 Division championship, the Eagles lost three fumbles Friday.
They had to put together a desperate drive, trailing by a point with 1:46 remaining before a clutch drive led by junior quarterback Johnny Stanton that ended with Stanton's 1-yard dive for the winning touchdown with 16 seconds to go – on fourth down.
Then there was the surprise package Bellarmine's Bells brought south with them.
Santa Margarita spent much of its practice time this week getting ready to confront the double-wing, which features a fullback very close to the quarterback, and two wingbacks hooked to each side of the offensive line. One wing goes into motion, sometimes to take a handoff or a pitchout or sometimes to act as a decoy on a quarterback keeper, a handoff to the fullback or, rarely, a pass.
It is a very difficult offense for which a defense must prepare. Santa Margarita coach Harry Welch talked during the week about how Santa Margarita had not faced that offensive scheme this season, and how it was challenging for the Eagles during practice to duplicate what they were about to confront.
Welch might have considered calling Orange County's king of the double-wing offense, Tustin coach Myron Miller to ask Miller to bring his Tillers down to Santa Margarita for a couple of practices, with a bonus tour of Santa Margarita's stunning football offices and training facility and, sure, the Eagles would throw in a catered lunch for the heck of it.
It would have been a waste of time and meal money. Often when Bellarmine came of out of the huddle the Bells sent three receivers wide. That's not Tustin's double-wing, or anyone else's.
Bellarmine had plenty of time to concoct a clever game plan. The Bells had not played since their Dec. 3 victory over Palo Alto in the CIF-Central Coast Open Division championship game. So they got creative, even throwing out of the double-wing formation.
And it all worked.
Santa Margarita pitched in, inadvertently. The Eagles lost a fumble on their first possession of the night, and Bellarmine's Bells, running that double-wing on their first possession, capitalized with a touchdown that gave them a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.
The Eagles tied it on a great pass from junior quarterback Johnny Stanton, himself better known as a runner than a passer, to River Cracraft for a 31-yard touchdown play. Another fine Stanton pass, this one of 41 yards to Sean Modster, put the Eagles on top, 14-7, late in the first quarter.
Momentum seemed to be in Santa Margarita's favor at the time. But momentum is unpredictable. So was Bellarmine.
The Bells abandoned the double-wing, spread those receivers, and went on the attack to start the second quarter. Then they went back to the double-wing and McHugh found an accommodating aisle up the middle on a quarterback draw and cruised to a 47-yard touchdown run that tied the game, 14-14, had the Santa Margarita coaching staff asking the defensive linemen several questions when they returned to the sideline.
Santa Margarita regained the lead, 21-14, on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Stanton to Cracraft. A key play on the drive was a fourth-and-2 run by Stanton that went 2 yards and one inch for the first down. The Eagles were leading, but still did not look as sharp offensively as they had in CIF-SS playoff victories over Long Beach Poly, Mission Viejo and San Clemente, or even in the overtime loss to Servite in a Trinity League game.
Bellarmine, looking more like pass-happy El Toro than run-obsessed Tustin, came out slinging again and tied it, 21-21, on a 40-yard touchdown pass from McHugh to Conner Jauch, who somehow slipped behind the Santa Margarita safeties into the end zone to await the pass.
The Bells went ahead, 24-21, on a field goal with four minutes to go in the third quarter.
Santa Margarita had been such a mistake-free team during the playoffs that perhaps it was due for the errors that nearly sunk the ship Friday. A lost fumble set up another Bellarmine touchdown, this one a 4-yard run by Justin Taliaferro. The kick for the extra point missed, leaving the Bells with a 30-21 lead with 9:50 remaining in the game.
Then the Eagles started their comeback.
Stanton connected with Connor O'Brien for a 32-yard touchdown pass with 7:52 left in the game, cutting the Bellarmine lead to 30-28.
With Santa Margarita defensive lineman Mack Pierson applying the pressure, McHugh threw a pass precisely to Eagles linebacker Matt Anderson at the Bellarmine 25, from where Anderson returned it to the 1. Stanton carried it in from there, and also ran it in for a 2-point conversion, and Santa Margarita had a 36-30 lead, its first since the midpoint of the second quarter.
The double-wing is very good at producing long drives, and points, and that's what Bellarmine did. The Bells traveled 74 yards on 13 plays, with Taliaferro waltzing in from 1-yard out to tie it, 36-36, with 1:46 to go. The Eagles let Bellarmine get that touchdown, as a time-saving move, and really wanted to block the extra-point kick by McHugh – and Santa Margarita's Zach Bonte just missed getting to it before the ball made its journey through the uprights to put Bellarmine on top, 37-36.
Santa Margarita made a championship response, with Stanton directing the drive that won it for Santa Margarita.
This game was revenge for Orange County football in general, and the Trinity League in particular. Servite got pummeled by a clearly superior De La Salle of Concord team, 48-8, last year. Orange Lutheran won a state championship game in 2006, and St. Margaret's, coached by Welch, won one in '08.
Win or lose, just getting to the CIF State Championship Bowl Games is an accomplishment. Santa Margarita accomplished more.
And Santa Margarita could be better next year. Nine of its 11 offensive starters Friday are non-seniors, including three members of that collegiate-like offensive line, and Cracraft, Stanton and Wolpin. Three of their starting four defensive backs are juniors.
We can safely project right now that Santa Margarita is the preseason No. 1 football team in Orange County for the 2012 season.
That's looking far ahead. Looking back, on the 2011 season, this was a great year for a great football team.
By Steve Fryer
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Orange County Register
