Eagles 16 - Mater Dei 7
Eagles Bring Monarchs To Their Knees
SANTA ANA, CA., October 25, 2013 – Just when it appeared that Santa Margarita was going to become an afterthought in the Trinity League playoff picture, its performance Friday put the Eagles right back in.
The No. 7 Eagles (4-4, 1-2), who entered the game bruised, battered and shorthanded, pulled off a 16-7 upset of No. 2 Mater Dei (7-1, 2-1) at Santa Ana Stadium. The Eagles are tied for third with Orange Lutheran, their opponent next week. The Monarchs are tied for second with Servite, but the Monarchs face St. John Bosco next week.
“We have so many inexperienced football players and several times they've played inexperienced and played scared ... afraid to make mistakes,” Eagles coach Harry Welch said. “Tonight they played with intensity and confidence. I'm very proud of them. That's one of the great victories of my career."
Kyle Sweet capped the game with a 17-yard touchdown run with 2:36 remaining on a fourth-and-goal from the 17 that gave the Eagles the 16-7 lead.
"We were going to come in and give it our all and have fun," Sweet said. "We were just going to come out and play."
Sweet filled in at quarterback for KJ Costello, who was injured in the game against Servite.
"He's a magnificent stud," Welch said of Sweet. "He played with courage. He had tweaked his knee earlier against that Mater Dei defense, which is one of the best we've seen, but he was still able to do enough."
The key coming into the game was for the Eagles to slow down the Monarchs ground game. In the past two games, Justin Allen had gained 556 yards with six touchdowns. The Eagles limited Allen to just 5 yards before he left in the second half because of a lower leg injury.
Aside from the problems the Eagles caused the Monarchs ground game, the same happened through the air.
Santa Margarita intercepted three passes from Chase Forrest, two by Jonathan La Bounty. And senior defensive lineman Randall Swain was a disruptive force all night.
The Monarchs finally reached the end zone in the third quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run by Dalvin Jones Fa'avae for a 7-6 lead.
The Eagles retook the lead, 9-7 on Alex Ury's 26-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.
"It was all Santa Margarita," Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson said. "I commend them. They owned the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. We made a lot of mistakes. We were erratic in our pass game ... we were just inconsistent on both sides of the ball.
"They came and pretty much got themselves back in the league race, and we lost control of an opportunity and now we have to battle back into it."
| Santa Margarita | 0 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 16 |
| Mater Dei | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 |
SM – Ury 34 FG
SM – Ury 42 FG
MD – Jones-Fa'avae 2 run (Shenk kick)
SM – Ury 26 FG
SM – Sweet 17 run (Ury kick)
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Rushing: MD - Forrest 8-17, Allen 9-5. JonesFa'avae 3-11; SM - Sweet 18-87
Passing: MD - Forrest 17-26-3-198; SM - Sweet 615-0-88
Receiving: MD - Lockett 3-59, Rockett 4-56, Welch 5-50; SM - McNichols 3-32, Ellison 1-34
By Damian Calhoun
Saturday, October 26, 2013
The Orange County Register - Varsity 1
