Crespi - Game Notes
Below are Santa Margarita's offensive and defensive football stats thru their 10th game game of the 2014 season. The Eagles finished the regular season with a record of 6-4 and are set to play Encino Crespi (8-1) in the first round of the CIF-SS Pac-5 playoffs next Friday night (November 14th).
As press time kickoff for the Crespi game is set for 7:30 pm. More details are pending including potential live TV and Internet coverage.
This will be the first meeting between the Eagles and the Celts. Crespi is from the Mission League and finished tied for first with Bishop Amat and Gardena Serra with 5-1 league marks but the Celts prevailed in a coin flip to capture the leagues #1 playoff spot. The Eagles are 11-7 all-time against Mission League teams including 6-3 vs. Bishop Amat, 2-0 vs. Notre Dame, 1-1 vs. Alemany and 2-3 vs. Loyola.
This will be the Eagles 22nd trip to the playoffs in their 26 varsity seasons. They have an all-time mark of 27-18 with three championships in their 21 previous post-seasons. Santa Margarita has a 13-8 record in the first round and a 14-9 record on the road int he playoffs. Since joining Division I (now called the Pac-5) in 1999 the Eagles are 10-11 in the post-season. In those 15 seasons, including 2014, Santa Margarita has earned 12 playoff berths.
New Eagle Head Coach Rick Curtis is off to a great start at Santa Margarita. He is the 4th Head Coach in school history and is 6-4 at Santa Margarita and 79-77-3 in his career including 14 as the Head Coach at Irvine Northwood. As the Defensive Coordinator at Irvine High in the early 90's he helped lead the Vaqueros to CIF-SS Titles in 1991, 1993 and 1993.
Crespi is led by second-year Head Coach Troy Thomas who was 7-1 vs. the Eagles while at Servite.
The Crespi game will be the 58th consecutive game against Division-I level competition for the Eagles dating back to week 5 of the 2010 season - a 31-7 win over then Pac-5 (Division I) Los Alamitos. Through the first 57 games in that stretch the Eagles have gone 40-17 (.701). Amazingly, 73 of the Eagles’ last 77 games have been against Division I-level competition.
Santa Margarita has gone 102-68-1 (.599) against Division I competition dating back to a 13-12 win over Servite in 1991 when the Eagles were in their third varsity season. This includes a 16-5 mark against Division I teams outside of the Southern Section such as San Jose Bellarmine Prep, Phoenix Brophy Prep and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman.
The Crespi game will be on the road, but if the Eagles were to prevail their second round game against either Servite or Long Beach Poly will be at home.
NEWS & NOTES
The Eagles registered their 200th win in program history with the victory over Orange Lutheran. In 26 seasons and including the win over Servite in Week 8, the Eagles have posted an all-time record of 201-100-3.
Milestone program wins include:
1st: Jurupa Valley 41-0, 1989
50th: Trabuco Hills 20-0, 1995
100th: St. John Bosco 35-17, 1999
150th: Paloma Valley 38-7, 2007
200th: Orange Lutheran 42-41, 2014
Santa Margarita has already set a number of team and individual records this year. These include: plays in a game (86 vs. Bishop Amat), total yards in a game (613 vs. Corona Santiago), passing attempts (47) completions (34) and passing yards in a game (495) by KJ Costello vs. Orange Lutheran, attempts (355), completions (217) and yards (2,920) in a season by Costello, receptions in a game (15, Kyle Sweet vs. Dorsey and against Orange Lutheran), receptions in a season (83, Kyle Sweet), andlongest punt (65 yards, Kyle Sweet at Bishop Gorman). Kyle is also the first receiver to reach 30 receptions in his first three games and 40 receptions in his first four games and KJ is the first QB to reach 1,000 yards passing on the season in three games and the first to have four consecutive 300-yard passing games. KJ has 4,398 yards passing in his career and is closing in Carson Palmer's record of 4,692. Costello needs just 295 yards to pass Carson - and has an entire season (2015) ahead of him.
KJ Costello has a school record six 300-yard passing games in his career and three 400-yard passing games and how has 2,920 yards passing on the season after ten games. His totals thru the first four games were 308, 407, 315 and 320 to become the first Eagle to reach 1,000 yards passing on the season in just three games and the first to have four 300-yard games in a row. KJ reached 2,000 yards in just seven games with his 495-yard effort against Orange Lutheran. It took Sean O'Brien and Ryan World nine games to reach 2,000 yards in 1992 and 2008 respectively. Carson Palmer needed ten games to reach it in 1997.
Costello has the best single season passing yardage total in Eagle History.
- KJ Costello (2014) 2,920
- Sean O'Brien (1992) 2,617
- Carson Palmer (1997) 2,608
- Johnny Stanton (2011) 2,439
KJ now has 4,398 career passing years passing Johnny Stanton in the Servite game to move up into 2nd place all-time.
- Carson Palmer (1995-97) 4,692
- KJ Costello (2013 - ) 4,398
- Johnny Stanton (2010-12) 3,763
Senior OLB Grady Higgins has 223 career tackles - good for 10th best all-time. With six tackles Grady will jump into 8th place and with 15 he'll be in 6th place. Higgins also has eleven 10-tackle games in his career. Higgins leads the team with 3.5 sacks. Grady has also caught four passes at tight end. The most by an Eagle TE since Max Tuerk had 17 in 2009. Fellow senior Rick Wade recorded 10 tackles at Mater Dei and 13 against Servite to give him seven 10-tackle games of his own.
Senior S/RB/WR/KR Rick Ellison recorded ten tackles at Mater Dei. Rick had one of the best all-around games in recent Eagle history against Servite in Week 8 as he rushed for a career high 118 yards including the game winning 26-yard TD run in the 4th quarter. He also added eight tackles, a pass broken up and a blocked field goal in the 22-17 win. Ellison is tied for the team lead with 88 total tackles and leads the team with eight passes broken up.
Senior RB Christian Caragao ran for a team-high 102 yards against JSerra and also a team-high 80 yards against Venice. and scored his fiirst two career touchdowns. He now has 306 yards rushing and three rushing TDs on the season. Junior RB/LB Matt Mark has posted 62 tackles and scored a team-leading nine touchdowns in his first six games this year including a team-high eight on the ground. Fellow junior RB Dre Hall leads the team with 537 yards rushing with four scores of his own.
Senior DE Rick Wade now has two interceptions and two defensive touchdowns in his career after picking off a pass and returning a fumble for a score against Venice. Last year he returned an interception 74 yards for a score against Carson. Wade, who has given a verbal commitment to UCLA,is tied for the team lead with 88 tackles and is second with 3 sacks. No Eagle defensive lineman has ever led the team in tackles.
Kyle Sweet boomed a school record 65-yard punt at Bishop Gorman to break current assistant coach John Byszewski's 25-year old record of 64 yards set at Whittier Christian in 1989. As the story goes, John's punt actually travelled 64 yards in the air and rolled another 10-20 yards; however, it was entered into the books as 64 yards. Kyle is the only person in Eagle history with: a receiving TD, rushing TD , passing TD, a punt return TD, an interception, a tackle, a successful PAT and field goal, and a punt. Sweet is 35/38 on PATs this season and 2/4 on field goals on the season and is averaging 38.0 yards per punt.
Kyle has a school-record 83 receptions for 1,204 yards on the season including 15 for 210 vs. Dorsey, 10 for 199 at Bishop Gorman and 15 for 235 vs. Orange Lutheran. Sweet's 83 receptions broke the record of 74 set by Brian Finneran in 1992. Sweet caught nine passes for 94 yards at St. John Bosco and now has 149 receptions for 2,483 yards in his career - the 2nd and 3rd best totals in Eagle history respectively.
Receptions in a career:
- Brian Finneran (1991-93) 178
- Kyle Sweet (2014) 149
- River Cracraft (2010-12) 134
Receptions in a season:
1. Kyle Sweet (2014) 83
2. Brian Finneran (1992) 74
3. John Minardi (1997) 70
4. Brian Finneran (1993) 67
5. Conner Bianchini (2014) 65
6. Mike O'Gorman (1998) 61
7. River Cracraft (2012) 56
8t. Bobby Whithorne (2002) 53
8t. Ryan Maxwell (2006) 53
10. Kyle Sweet (2013) 51
Senior WR Conner Bianchini has 65 receptions on the season (for 808 yards and seven TDs) which is the 5th best single season total all-time. Conner caught 11 passes vs. Bishop Amat and 10 against Orange Lutheran and is averaging 6.5 receptions per game.
Receiving yardage in a season:
- John Minardi (1997) 1,469
- Kyle Sweet (2014) 1,204
- Mike O'Gorman (1998) 1,144
- Brian Finneran (1992) 1,141
- John Minardi (1996) 1,040
- Brian Finneran (1993) 948
- River Cracraft (2012) 935
- Kyle Sweet (2013) 909
- Brad Finneran (1993) 820
- Conner Bianchini (2013) 808
Receiving yards in a career:
1. Brian Finneran (1991-93) 2,546
2. John Minardi (1995-97) 2,539
3. Kyle Sweet (2011-14) 2,483
The Eagles are averaging a remarkable 440.2 yards per game, 21.1 first downs and 38.6 yards per possession. They have also run 139 more plays than the opposition thru their first ten games.
The Eagles are averaging 440.2 yards per game which is on pace to be the 2nd highest total ever. Their record total is 450.2 set in 1997 when Carson Palmer was the QB.
In their 2011 CIF State Championship season the Eagles averaged 58.2 plays and 20.6 first downs per game and many observers talked about how much they were controlling the tempo and the clock. This year they are averaging 70.2 and 21.1 respectively.
By Adrian Peters
Sports Information Director
