JSerra - Game Notes
We've reached the mid-point of the 2014 regular season and Trinity League play is right around the corner. Below are Santa Margarita's offensive and defensive football stats thru their fifth game game of the season - a 42-0 win over Venice at Trabuco Hills High School on Friday, September 26th.
The Eagles will have a bye this Friday night, but will enter Week 6 on Friday, October 10th with a 4-1 record as they play host to the JSerra Lions (5-0) to kickoff Trinity League play.
Kickoff for the JSerra game is set for 7 pm and the game will be played at Saddleback College. As both teams share this facility the Eagles are designated as the home team and it will be Homecoming. This is the ninth meeting between these two schools with the Eagles holding a 6-2 edge. The Eagles are 4-0 as the "home" team in this series and 2-2 as the "road" team. The Lions are led by Head Coach Jim Hartigan who is 40-35 in his 8th season at JSerra. Hartigan was the Eagles first Head Coach and led them to a record of 122-44-3 (.731) in 14 seasons (1989-02) and wining CIF-SS Division V Titles in 1996 and 1997. Thru 26 seasons, including a four-year stint at Clovis West, his career record is 203-89-4.
New Eagle Head Coach Rick Curtis is off to a great start at Santa Margarita. He is 4-1 at Santa Margarita and 77-74-3 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. Coach Curtis has certainly kept pace with his predecessors and he's worked hard to keep up the Eagle's winning tradition. His 4-1 start stacks up well with the three previous Eagle coaches who also started their Santa Margarita tenures with records of at least 4-1.
1. Mike Jacot (2003) 5-0
2t. Jim Hartigan (1989) 4-1
2t. Harry Welch (2010) 4-1
2t. Rick Curtis (2014) 4-1
The JSerra game will be the 53rd consecutive game against Division-I level competition dating back to week 5 of the 2010 season - a 31-7 win over then Pac-5 (Division I) Los Alamitos. Through the first 52 games in that stretch the Eagles have gone 38-14 (.731). Amazingly, 68 of the Eagles’ last 72 games have been against Division I-level competition.
Santa Margarita has gone 101-65-1 (.608) 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 following week after the JSerra game (Friday, October 17th) the Eagles play host to Orange Lutheran at Saddleback College. Kickoff for that matchup is set for 7 pm.
News and Notes
Santa Margarita has already set a number of team and individual records this year. These include: plays in a game (86 vs. Bishop Amat), yards in a game (613 vs. Corona Santiago), completions in a game (27, KJ Costello vs. Corona Santiago), receptions in a game (15, Kyle Sweet vs. Dorsey), longest 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 in 3 games and the first to have four consecutive 300-yard passing games.
KJ Costello has a school record five 300-yard passing games in his career and how has 1,350 yards passing on the season. His totals are 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 now has 2,957 career passing years - good for 5th best all-time.
Senior OLB Grady Higgins has 184 career tackles - good for 17th best all-time. Higgins has ten 10-tackle games in his career. Fellow senior Rick Wade has five 10-tackle games of his own.
Senior RB Christian Caragao ran for a team-high 80 yards against Venice and scored his fiirst two career touchdowns. He now has 203 yards rushing on the season. Junior RB/LB Matt Mark has posted 45 tackles and has scored a team-leading eight touchdowns in his first five games this year including seven on the ground, while fellow junior RB Dre Hall leads the team with 308 yards rushing with three scored 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 leads the team with 51 tackles. 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.
Kyle has 46 receptions for 722 yards on the season including 10 for 199 at Bishop Gorman and 15 for 210 vs. Dorsey. Sweet now has 112 receptions for 2,001 yards in his career - 5th best and 3rd best respectively in Eagle history.
The Eagles are averaging a remarkable 444.2 yards per game, 21.4 first downs and 39.0 yards per possession. They have also run 56 more plays than the opposition thru their first five games.
The Eagles are averaging 444.2 yards per game which is the second highest total ever next to the record total set in 1997 when Carson Palmer was the QB. In that year the Eagles averaged 450.2 yards per game.
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 69.2 and 21.4 respectively.
By Adrian Peters
Sports Information Director
