Eagles 22 - Servite 17
MISSION VIEJO, CA., October 24, 2014 – In Week 8, the Eagles moved closer to securing their first playoff berth since 2012 with an important 22-17 win over Servite. The Eagles improved to 6-2 and 2-1 in Trinity League play while the Friars fell to 4-4, 1-2. Senior DB Rick Ellison stepped in at running back and rushed for 118 yards in 16 carries including a 26-yard run with 6:36 left in the game to seal the victory. Ellison also added eight tackles, a pass broken up and a blocked field goal. Santa Margarita jumped out to a 15-0 second quarter lead as they used an effective ground game to put up a season high 248 yards rushing and 382 total yards and 22 first downs. Junior RB Dre Hall (19 carries for 104 yards) plunged in from one yard out to give the Eagles a 6-0 first quarter lead. Senior WR Conner Bianchini caught a 23-yard scoring pass from KJ Costello in the second quarter to increase the lead to 12-0 before Kyle Sweet tacked on a 21-yard field goal to make it 15-0. Servite's Travis Waller ran it in from two yards out with 5 seconds left in the half to close the gap to 15-7. With 2:28 left in the third quarter and the Eagles clinging to a 15-10 lead Grady Higgins (12 tackles) forced and recovered a fumble to stop a Friar drive at the Eagle 22 yard line. After an exchange of punts Ellison put the icing on the cake with his score. Rick Wade led the team with 13 tackles while junior LB Austin Barrette chipped in eight.
| Santa Margarita | 6 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 22 |
| Servite | 0 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 17 |
SM – Hall 1 run (Sweet kick failed)
SM – Bianchini 23 pass from Costello (Sweet kick failed)
SM – Sweet 21 FG
SER – Waller 2 run (Acosta-Dupuis kick)
SER – Acosta-Dupuis 42 FG
SM – Ellison 26 run (Sweet kick)
SER – Beachley 5 run (Acosta-Dupuis kick)
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Rushing: SM - Ellison 16-117, Mall 19-107; Ser - Beachley 15-45, Taylor 13-68
Passing: SM - Costello 12-28-0-133; Ser - Waller 8-17-0-43
Receiving: SM - Bianchini 4-67, Sweet 3-23; Ser - St. Brown 1-14, Ojeda 1-11
By Adrian Peters
Sports Information Director
Let the title talk begin for Santa Margarita
MISSION VIEJO – Santa Margarita wasn’t part of the title talk in the Trinity League before the season, but the Eagles thrust themselves in that conversation Friday night.
Dre Hall and Rick Ellison each rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown, Grady Higgins forced and recovered a key second-half fumble and No. 4 Santa Margarita out-executed No. 3 Servite at the end of a 22-17 victory at Saddleback College.
Santa Margarita (6-2 overall) added the grind-it-out victory to its fourth-quarter rally against Orange Lutheran last week to improve to 2-1 in the Trinity League and move into a second-place tie with JSerra (2-1 in league) behind St. John Bosco (3-0).
“It’s very exciting,” Higgins said. “It’s like the highway to the Trinity League championship because we needed to win this game to get there. If we lost this game, there’s no way.”
The highway was brutally difficult again Friday but a lot of small plays added up for Santa Margarita. One of the Eagles’ biggest plays came on their game-closing drive that ran out the clock and protected a 22-17 lead.
On a fourth-and-3 from its 33, Santa Margarita lined up as if it was going to go for the first down with 2:19 left, but the Eagles drew Servite (4-4, 1-2) offside coming out a Friars’ timeout.
The penalty resulted in the first down and the Eagles ran out the clock from there, recovering from a 5-yard touchdown run by Tate Beachley that trimmed the Eagles’ lead to five points with 4:51 left.
A spectacular, 84-yard kickoff return by Servite’s Maurice Davison to the Santa Margarita 14 setup Beachley’s run.
But Santa Margarita made more plays. Ellison scored on a 26-yard TD run with 6:36 left in the fourth quarter as the Eagles extended their lead to 22-10. Ellison finished with season-high 117 yards on a season-high 16 carries while Hall added a season-high 107 yards on 19 carries.
The duo was powered by an offensive line of Austin Maihen, Jack Jennison, Tanner Prenovost, Zach Josipovich, Brett Neilon and Will Sorenson along with tight ends Rick Wade and Higgins. The Eagles finished with a season-high 254 yards rushing.
“(The offensive line) controlled the line of scrimmage the whole night and that’s the key to our success,” Higgins said.
Higgins also forced and recovered a fumble at his 22 for the game’s lone turnover with 2:28 left in the third and the Eagles’ clinging to a 15-10 lead.
Another big play was Ellison blocking a 42-yard field goal in the middle of the first quarter.
“A lot of our plays were killers. The better team won,” said Servite coach A.J. Gass, who said before the game that the Friars’ season was on the line. “The more disciplined team won tonight. And the team that executed the game plan won tonight. We had effort at times but our execution was poor. … You can’t make mistakes in this league.”
Servite quarterback Travis Waller limped, walked tenderly and ran without his usual burst in playing through a foot injury. But the Oregon commit still cut into the Eagles’ 15-0 lead by scoring on 2-yard TD run with five seconds left in the second quarter.
The Friars also lost Equanimeous St. Brown to an undisclosed injury. They were already playing without Terrell Bynum (leg), who was injured last week against Mater Dei.
Santa Margarita played without running back Christian Caragao (ankle) but its ground attack still surfaced early. On their second possession, the Eagles used eight consecutive run between Hall and Ellison en route to 78-yard scoring drive that ended in a 1-yard TD run by Hall and a 6-0 lead with 4:02 left in the first.
“Everyone has run the ball on us this year,” said Gass, whose squad faced St. John Bosco and Sean McGrew next week. “We got a lot of work to do to compete for the rest of the year.”
Santa Margarita’s KJ Costello threw a 23-yard TD to a leaping Conner Bianchini in the front corner of the end zone early in the second quarter for a 12-0 lead. It was the junior’s 15th TD pass and came on a fourth-and-14.
The Eagles made the clutch plays throughout the game. Kyle Sweet kicked a 21-yard field for a 15-0 lead with 4:02 left in the second quarter to cap a drive sparked by a 15-yard reception by Hall on a screen pass on third-and-15 from the Santa Margarita 24. Costello narrowly beat the rush to connect with Hall, who seemed to catch the ball behind the line of scrimmage before he charged through defenders to get the first down.
“It’s a great victory,” Santa Margarita coach Rick Curtis said. “We’re totally excited for this one. Second one in a row and now we get another big one next week against Mater Dei. It just keeps rolling here in the Trinity League.”
By Dan Albano
Saturday, October 25, 2014
The Orange County Register
