Servite - Game Notes
Attached are Santa Margarita's offensive and defensive football stats thru their seventh game game of the season - a thrilling 42-41 win over Orange Lutheran at Saddleback College on Friday, October 17th.
The Eagles registered their 200th win in program history with the victory over Orange Lutheran. In 26 seasons the Eagles have posted an all-time record of 200-98-3.
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
Trinity League play will continue this week as the Eagles (5-2, 1-1) will host the Servite Friars (4-3, 1-1) in a critical game for both teams at Saddleback College on Friday, October 24th. Kickoff for the Servite game is set for 7 pm.
The Eagles have played the Friars more than any other opponent in their 26-year history. This is the 20th meeting between these two schools dating back to 1991 with the Friars holding an 11-7-1 series edge. There have been some memorable games between these long time foes including a dramatic 13-12 Santa Margarita win in 1991 when the Eagles stopped a late two-point conversion attempt, a 20-17 Eagle win in 2003 on a 47-yard Mike Fowle field goal as time expired, a 35-34 Servite win in 2005 when the Friars stopped a last second two-point conversion attempt, and a classic 43-42 overtime win by the Friars in 2011. The Eagles are 3-6-1 against the Servite at Saddleback College with their most recent home win being a 21-0 shutout of the Friars in 2012.
New Eagle Head Coach Rick Curtis is off to a great start at Santa Margarita. He is 5-2 at Santa Margarita and 78-75-3 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 seven games are as follows:
1t. Mike Jacot (2003) 6-1
1t. Harry Welch (2010) 6-1
3t. Jim Hartigan (1989) 5-2
3t. Rick Curtis (2014) 5-2
The Servite game will be the 55th 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 54 games in that stretch the Eagles have gone 39-15 (.722). Amazingly, 70 of the Eagles’ last 74 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 31th) the Eagles travel to the Santa Ana Bowl to play the Mater Dei Monarchs. 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), passing attempts (47) completions (34) and passing yards in a game (495) by KJ Costello vs. Orange Lutheran, receptions in a game (15, Kyle Sweet vs. Dorsey and against Orange Lutheran), 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 six 300-yard passing games in his career and three 400-yard passing games and how has 2,253 yards passing on the season after just seven 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 4th best single season passing yardage total in Eagle History.
- Sean O'Brien (1992) 2,617
- Carson Palmer (1997) 2,608
- Johnny Stanton (2011) 2,439
- KJ Costello (2014) 2,253
KJ now has 3,731 career passing years - good for 3rd best all-time.
- Carson Palmer (1995-97) 4,692
- Johnny Stanton (2010-12) 3,763
- KJ Costello (2013 - ) 3,731
Senior OLB Grady Higgins has 200 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. Higgins leads the team with 3.5 sacks.
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 45 tackles and has scored a team-leading nine 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 365 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, who has given a verbal commitment to UCLA,is second on the team with 60 tackles and 3 sacks. No Eagle defensive lineman has ever led the team in tackles.
Senior safety Rick Ellison leads the team with 65 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 68 receptions for 1,056 yards on the season including 15 for 210 vs. Dorsey, 10 for 199 at Bishop Gorman and 15 for 235 vs. Orange Lutheran. Sweet now has 134 receptions for 2,335 yards in his career - both 3rd best in Eagle history.
Receptions in a career:
1. Brian Finneran (1991-93) 178
2. River Cracraft (2010-12) 134
3. Kyle Sweet (2014) 134
Receptions in a season:
1. Brian Finneran (1992) 74
2. John Minardi (1997) 70
3. Kyle Sweet (2014) 68
4. Brian Finneran (1993) 67
5. Mike O'Gorman (1998) 61
6. River Cracraft (2012) 56
7t. Bobby Whithorne (2002) 53
7t. Ryan Maxwell (2006) 53
9. Kyle Sweet (2013) 51
10. Conner Bianchini (2014) 49
Senior WR Conner Bianchini has 49 receptions on the season (for 576 yards and five TDs) which is the 10th best single season total all-time. Conner caught 11 passes vs. Bishop Amat and 10 against Orange Lutheran and is averaging 7 receptions per game.
Receiving yardage in a season:
- John Minardi (1997) 1,469
- Mike O'Gorman (1998) 1,144
- Brian Finneran (1992) 1,141
- Kyle Sweet (2014) 1,056
- John Minardi (1996) 1,040
Receiving yards in a career:
1. Brian Finneran (1991-93) 2,546
2. John Minardi (1995-97) 2,539
3. Kyle Sweet (2011-14) 2,335
The Eagles are averaging a remarkable 462.7 yards per game, 21.7 first downs and 41.0 yards per possession. They have also run 111 more plays than the opposition thru their first seven games.
The Eagles are averaging 462.7 yards per game which is on pace to be the highest total ever breaking their 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 71.4 and 21.7 respectively.
By Adrian Peters
Sports Information Director
