Saddleback inches closer to Zeta League title with decisive victory over Century

Saddleback Roadrunners celebrate Friday night’s league victory over Century. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Saddleback High School’s football team inched closer to its second consecutive Zeta League title defeating Century 42-6 on senior night Friday at Saddleback.

The Roadrunners (7-2, 3-0) are the only undefeated team in the five team league and can win the outright title with a victory over Magnolia next Friday at Glover Stadium.

“I give it up for Century, they had a nice plan against us,” said Saddleback Coach Rob Thompson. “Honestly, our offensive line did not play well tonight, we’ve had issues with that all year, but we just got to keep practicing better. If we beat Magnolia, we’re league champs and hopefully we get a better seed (in the playoffs) than we did last year.”

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Quarterback Andre Scott led the Roadrunners offensively, completing 9 of 17 passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns. He connected with Andrik Valenzuela on TD passes of 19 and 24 yards in the first quarter to put Saddleback ahead 14-0.

Fabian Bravo, who rushed for 76 yards on 10 carries, scored on a 45-yard run in the third quarter to make it 21-0.

Century (4-4-1, 1-2) broke the shutout when quarterback Leonardo Mendoza hit David Morales on a 7-yard TD pass in the third quarter.

But Valenzuela had a 35-yard interception return for a TD later in the third quarter. Then in the fourth quarter, Chris Romero scored on a 79-yard punt return and JD Zuniga scored on a 1-yard TD to cap the scoring for the Roadrunners.

“It was a good win, I think all-around we did pretty well,” said Scott, the quarterback. “I think personally I could have done a lot better reading their defense a lot faster, disecting what they were running and play a better game overall passing and running. But we ran the ball pretty well.”

Scott said the Roadrunners still have lofty goals.

“League title is in the back of my mind, but we’re aiming for bigger things, the playoffs, that’s what we’re looking for now,” he said. “We want to make it deep in the playoff run.”

Century, coached by Lance Neal, battled until the end but two interceptions and costly penalties hurt the Centurions. And Sadddleback’s defense was tough all night. Derek Carrillo led Century, rushing for 63 yards on 12 carries.

“They outplayed us, we had some chances to get back in the game and we just didn’t take advantage of them,” Neal said. “We’re struggling to find ourselves, but we’re playing hard and we’re certainly better than we were a while ago. We hope to come back and have a good game vs. Godinez next week.

“If we win next week, we’re 5-4-1 and would have an opportunity to get a wild card and if we lose, we would be 4-5-1 and we don’t have the opportunity.”

Only two teams from the five team league receive automatic berths for the CIF playoffs.

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