Orange Lutheran - Game Notes
Below are Santa Margarita's offensive and defensive football stats thru their sixth game game of the season - a 35-28 loss to JSerra before a full house at Saddleback College on Friday, October 10th.
Trinity League play will continue this week as the Eagles (4-2, 0-1) will host the Orange Lutheran Lancers (4-2, 0-1) in a must win game for both teams at Saddleback College on Friday, October 17th. Kickoff for the OLu game is set for 7 pm.
This is the 11th meeting between these two schools with the Lancers holding a 6-4 edge. The Eagles are 2-3 against the Lancers at Saddleback College going back to a 42-0 win in 1989, and 2-3 against them on the road. Their most recent win at Saddleback against OLu was a 31-10 win in 2011.
New Eagle Head Coach Rick Curtis is off to a great start at Santa Margarita. He is 4-2 at Santa Margarita and 77-75-3 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. The best coaching starts at Santa Margarita after six games are as follows:
1. Mike Jacot (2003) 6-0
2. Harry Welch (2010) 5-1
3t. Jim Hartigan (1989) 4-2
3t. Rick Curtis (2014) 4-2
The OLu game will be the 54th 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 53 games in that stretch the Eagles have gone 38-15 (.717). Amazingly, 69 of the Eagles’ last 73 games have been against Division I-level competition.
Santa Margarita has gone 101-66-1 (.604) 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 OLu game (Friday, October 24th) the Eagles play host to Servite Friars 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 1,758 yards passing on the season. 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 now has 3,236 career passing years - good for 5th best all-time.
- Carson Palmer (95-97) 4,692
- Johnny Stanton (10-12) 3,763
- Sean O'Brien (90-92)3,721
- Jon Daniels (04-05) 3,622
- KJ Costello (13 - ) 3,236
Senior OLB Grady Higgins has 191 career tackles - good for 15th 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 102 yards against JSerra and also a team-high 80 yards against Venice. and scored his fiirst two career touchdowns. He now has 305 yards rushing and three rushing TDs on the season. Junior RB/LB Matt Mark has posted 45 tackles and has scored a team-leading ninet touchdowns in his first six games this year including a team-high eight on the ground, while fellow junior RB Dre Hall leads the team with 327 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 55 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. Sweet is 22/22 on PATs this season and 1/1 on field goals on the season and is averaging 36.1 yards per punt.
Kyle has 53 receptions for 821 yards on the season including 10 for 199 at Bishop Gorman and 15 for 210 vs. Dorsey. Sweet now has 119 receptions for 2,100 yards in his career - both 3rd best in Eagle history.
Receptions in a season:
1. Brian Finneran (1992) 74
2. John Minardi (1997) 70
3. Brian Finneran (1993) 67
4. Mike O'Gorman (1998) 61
5. River Cracraft (2012) 56
6t. Bobby Whithorne (2002) 53
6t. Ryan Maxwell (2006) 53
6t. Kyle Sweet (2014) 53
9. Kyle Sweet (2013) 51
Senior WR Connor Bianchini has 39 receptions on the season (for 437 yards and five TDs) which is the 20th best all-time.
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 446.3 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 70.2 and 21.3 respectively.
By Adrian Peters
Sports Information Director
