Eagles 56 - Downey 0
Eagles Open 2017 Campaign in Dominating Fashion
DOWNEY, CA., August 25, 2017 – The wait for the 2017 season is over. The long, hot summer weeks of going head-to-head with friends in the same jersey have come to a close. The time to take out frustration on the opponents is finally here. Last Friday’s season opener against the Vikings of Downey High School went swimmingly, as the Eagles (1-0, 0-0) shut out the host team by a score of 56-0.
Offensively, the Eagles one again showed a balanced attack by totaling 278 passing and 259 rushing yards. In his Santa Margarita debut, the Eagles were led by senior quarterback Josiah Norwood, who completed 19 of his 27 passes (70%) for 228 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. On the receiving end of those completions were seniors Chad Magyar, who hauled in five catches for 66 yards (13.2 average), Utah-commit Malone Mataele’s five catches for 48 yards with two touchdowns, and Fresno State-commit Johnny McCartan who had two catches for 44 yards. Getting in on receiving touchdowns were senior Mark Eaton, who had three catches for 35 yards and a score, Kareem Amer captured his first varsity touchdown on his lone catch of the evening which went for 50 yards courtesy of quarterback Hunter Cifuentes. Sophomore wideout Chase Nenad in his first varsity action had one memorable catch for 13 yards and a score as well.
In the running game, the Eagles collected 259 rushing yards courtesy of the powerful running by Magyar, who led the Eagles with 12 carries for 113 yards and three touchdowns, while Mataele provided four carries for 53 yards of his own. Junior Jake Thomas got his share of carries with five for 36 yards as did Bryce Williams who carried the ball five times for 34 yards. Norwood showed his ability to keep plays alive, rushing three times for 25 yards.
Defensively, the Eagles were too overpowering for the Vikings, tallying 59 total tackles, a sack, 2 tackles for loss and an interception. Leading tacklers for the Eagles were senior captain Caden Fitch (2 solo, 8 assisted), Sean Toohey (2 solo, 7 assisted) and Jake Delaney (2 solo, 3 assisted) with Blake Bianchini hauling in his first varsity interception. The stout defense held the Vikings to just 130 passing and 121 rushing yards.
For the special teams, senior kicker Dylan Brady had a busy evening with nine kickoffs resulting in eight touchbacks and was successful on eight of eight PAT’s. Despite having two touchdowns called back, Mataele had two punt returns for a total of 52 yards with a long of 39 yards, and a kickoff return for 40 yards.
Next on tap for the Eagles will be their second consecutive away game when they take on the Cubs of Loyola High School tonight at 7:00pm. Loyola (1-0, 0-0) defeated Fairfax High School last week by a score of 52-7. Loyola plays out of the Mission League alongside league champion Serra of Gardena to whom the Eagles defeated last year in the Division 1 first round. Loyola finished last season with a 3-7 record including a loss to Santa Margarita on September 2nd by a score of 37-7.
| Santa Margarita | 14 | 21 | 14 | 7 | 56 |
| Downey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
SM – Mataele 12 pass from Norwood (Brady kick)
SM – Magyar 14 run (Brady kick)
SM – Magyar 1 run (Brady kick)
SM – Magyar 3 run (Brady kick)
SM – Eaton 21 pass from Norwood (Brady kick)
SM – Nenad 13 pass from Norwood (Brady kick)
SM – Mataele 18 pass from Norwood (Brady kick)
SM – Amer 50 pass from Cifuentes (Brady kick)
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Rushing: SM - Magyar 12-113, Mataele 4-53; DOW - Foots 8-60, Ross 13-43
Passing: SM - Norwood 19-27-1-228; DOW - Foots 11-20-1-130
Receiving: SM - Magyar 5-66, Mataele 5-48; DOW - Atkins 3-47, Whitney 3-29
Sean Zeitler
Sports Information Director
Norwood tosses four TD passes as Santa Margarita wins big
DOWNEY – Prior to Friday night's nonleague opener against Downey, Santa Margarita's coach Rich Fisher said he thought his team might be perceived as a little bit under the radar.
However, after a 56-0 rout, the Eagles (1-0) and their no huddle offense aren't under the radar any longer.
Senior All-Trinity League running back Chad Magyar rushed for 114 yards and scored three touchdowns and quarterback Josiah Norwood, a transfer from Troy High, tossed a career-high four TD passes as Santa Margarita cruised.
"The O-line opened up huge gaps and gave me easy running lanes," said Magyar, who also caught five passes.
After surviving an intense competition for the starting spot, Norwood emerged as the front runner and guided the Eagles offense to five touchdowns on five its six first half possessions.
Norwood completed 18 of 25 passes for 205 yards and threw two touchdowns in the first half as the Eagles dominated and built a 35-0 halftime lead.
"We were pretty confident coming in and we executed well, but we have to keep on working," said Norwood, who threw TD passes of 12, 22, 13 and 18 yards.
Just over three minutes into the game, Norwood led a six-play, 57-yard scoring drive to give Santa Margarita a 7-0 lead. Norwood capped off the drive with a 12–yard TD pass to Malone Mataele.
Moments later, the Eagles were on the move again but a deflected pass in the end zone was intercepted and foiled their drive. Later in the opening quarter, Magyar scored his first TD on a 14-yard run to make it 14-0.
Magyar scored on runs of one and three yards in the second quarter and Norwood tossed a 2-yard TD pass to Mark Eaton as the Eagles offense was virtually unstoppable.
Santa Margarita racked up 330 of its 508 yards of offense yards in the opening half.
The Eagles defense limited the Vikings to one trip into Santa Margarita territory in the first half.
"I'm proud of their effort; they were hungry," Fisher said. "Josiah made a lot of good decisions but we still have things to clean up and they know that."
The Eagles' Malone Mataele had two punt returns for touchdowns called back due to penalties.
By Tom Connolly
Saturday, August 26, 2017
The Orange County Register
