Segerstrom drops second in a row, losing home opener to California 19-7

Raymond Lopez of Segerstrom celebrates after coming up with fumble recovery Friday night. (Photo courtesy Mark Bausman, For OC Sports Zone)

.Segerstrom’s football team will be out to bounce back from a loss when it hosts El Modena Friday night at 7.

The Jaguars dropped their second in a row to start the season, losing to California High School 19-7 Friday night at Segerstrom.

“Last night was a tough loss, but our guys played hard all night,” said Segerstrom Coach Joseph Tagaloa. “Going into our home opener, our boys were really excited to play. We battled and made some great plays, but unfortunately we came up short. Early season mistakes have plagued us so far, but we are learning and getting better every day.

“Offensively we struggled to finish, but moved the ball really well. Timely turnovers and some miscommunication led to the low output of points.”

Noah Tagaloa, the coach’s son, scored the team’s only touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

“This was his first game of the season after being forced to sit our season opener due to the district’s policy on contact tracing,” Coach Tagaloa said.

“Defensively our guys flew around and forced some turnovers, but unfortunately were not able to capitalize on them as we would have liked.

“We’ve got to give California credit for their ability to run the ball. Their running back ran hard and made some big plays for them which was the difference in the outcome. Moving forward we got to learn from this one and build on what success we did have in order to be ready for next week’s opponent. We host El Modena on Friday night who is always well coached and a tough game.”