EAGLES 44 - SERVITE 8
MISSION VIEJO, CA., November 1, 2024 – The Friars came into the contest ranked No. 43 in the nation by MaxPreps.com. QB John Gazzaniga was 16/21 passing for 185 yards and 1 TD. RB Jaion Smith rushed 10 times for 71 yards and caught a TD. RB Eli Robinson rushed 6 times for 28 yards. WR Trent Mosley caught 5 passes for 79 yards and rushed for 1 TD. WR Jonah Smith had 5 catches for 51 yards. QB Hayes Cloutier, QB John Gazzaniga, and QB James Johnson all rushed for TDs. Defensively Dash Fifita had 10 tackles (4 solo, 6 asst.). DL JJ Hanne had 4 tackles (2 solo, 2 asst.) and .5 sack. DL Joseph Terry had 1 sack. DB Jayden Crowder blocked a punt.
| Santa Margarita | 16 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 44 |
| Servite | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
SM – T. Mosley 4 run (Gass kick)
SM – Crowder punt block safety
SM – Ja. Smith 10 pass from J. Gazzaniga (Gass kick)
SER – Carr 10 run (Gutierrez run)
SM – Johnson 2 run (Gass kick)
SM – J. Gazzaniga 1 run (Gass kick)
SM – Embree 30 pass from Johnson (Gass kick)
SM – Cloutier 14 run (Gass kick)
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Rushing: SM - Ja. Smith 10-71, Robinson 6-28; SER - Carr 16-47, Gutierrez 3-12
Passing: SM - J. Gazzaniga 16-21-1-185, Johnson 1-1-0-30; SER - Hannan 8-11-0-41
Receiving: SM - T. Mosley 5-79, Embree 3-73, Jo. Smith 5-51; SER - Parker 3-16
Compiled by Chuck Nan
Statistics by Shane Mielke
Servite football could be ahead of Santa Margarita for at-large berth
MISSION VIEJO, CA., November 1, 2024 – Santa Margarita beat Servite 44-8 on Friday, the final day of the CIF Southern Section football regular season, to leave both teams tied with JSerra in the Trinity League with 1-4 league records.
And although Santa Margarita is ahead of Servite in the Calpreps.com ratings that are used by the Southern Section to place teams in football playoff divisions, Servite has an edge on Santa Margarita for qualifying for the Division 1 playoffs as an at-large team.
Santa Margarita is the No. 7 team in the Southern Section in the Calpreps ratings. Servite is No. 9.
But Servite has this edge: Servite is 6-4 overall and Santa Margarita is 4-6 overall. According to CIF-SS at-large selection criteria: ” … no team under .500 will be placed until all .500 at-large entries have been placed.”
That is stated on Page 8 of the CIF-SS Football Playoffs Bulletin that can be found here.
Maybe CIF-SS Division 1 is an eight-team division. Maybe it’s a nine-team division, in which the Nos. 8-9 play each other next week while the division’s other seven qualifiers have a bye week. Maybe it’s going to be a 16-team division like the other 13 11-man football divisions.
Whatever, according to that rule Servite still might be in good shape for an at-large berth.
CIF-SS football playoff brackets will be released Sunday at 10 a.m.
By Steve Fryer
Saturday, November 2, 2024
The Orange County Register
