Irvine football team home for CIF quarterfinal playoff after dramatic road victory

Deacon Moss was one of the stars for Irvine Friday night in the playoff opener. (FILE PHOTO: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone).

Irvine High School’s football team, after capturing a dramatic 34-32 road victory over Los Osos Friday night, gets a home game this week in the quarterfinal round of the CIF Division 8 playoffs.

Coach Tom Ricci’s Vaqueros (7-4) host Salesian (8-3) Friday night at Irvine Stadium. Salesian moved on with a 31-7 road victory over Esperanza.

“Our kids played with so much heart tonight,” Ricci said Friday. “They just believe they can win. Even when we’re down our kids have a they score, we score mentality. I’m so proud of them. We always say special teams is one third of the game so we have to treat it as such.

“Tonight we had a kickoff return for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown. Our defense got two huge takeaways and they did a great job at the end of the game.”

Deacon Moss led the way offensively and on special teams. Irvine was without star running back Brandon “Figgy” Figueroa, who saw limited duty because of an injury.

“Guys try to take Deacon out of the mix and we have other guys step up. Even without Figgy tonight, Seamus Hoffman (a sophomore) ran his tail off. I don’t know what next week holds for us, but I do know that our kids play like a family in every aspect of the game and win, lose or draw, we will always be just that. A family.”

Special teams had a big night.

Jaden Burke had a 95-yard kick-off return for a TD and Moss had a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Offensively, quarterback Khoa Bui had a 2-yard rushing touchdown and Sina Saferzadeh an 18-yard rushing TD. Hoffman had a 9-yard rushing TD.

The defense forced two fumbles and recovered both and had one interception.

The winner of Friday’s game moves on face the winner of the St. Pius/St. Matthias at Segerstrom game in the semifinals.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com