Troy keeps Iota League title hopes alive holding off Irvine’s late comeback for win

Troy coaches meet with the Warriors after the win over Irvine. (PHOTOS: Jacob Ramos, For OC Sports Zone).

In a thrilling Iota League matchup, Troy High School’s football team held off a late push by Irvine to win 21-20 in Friday night’s game at Irvine Stadium.

The win was headlined by Troy’s star running back Ethan Mundt, who scored all three of the Warriors touchdowns and totaled 186 yards on the ground on 25 carries. Mundt has been the engine behind Troy’s offense this season, and that was never more evident than on Friday.

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“He’s a monster. He turns these little tiny slivers in the defense into big gains and we’re blessed to have him,” Troy Coach Michael Echaves said about Mundt postgame to OC Sports Zone. “He works his tail off … he’s a hell of a player.”

The running back had scores of 52 yards, 1 yard and 12 yards, respectively. Mundt leads Troy (8-1, 4-0) in rushing yards per game at 170.4 after the victory over Irvine. 

“[Irvine’s] defensive line was pretty good, but our [offensive] line kicked their butt,” Mundt said. “We needed this win, and it showed because we fought real hard. They were a good team and this win really proves a lot for us.”

Despite the success on the ground by Troy and Mundt, perhaps the most important sequence of the night came when the Warriors got a stop at the goal line on Irvine’s two-point conversion attempt to win the game late.

With Irvine targeting Cole Riedel at the back of the end zone, Troy’s defense rallied to get in Riedel’s line of sight and to break up the pass. The stop and recovery on the ensuing kickoff gave the Warriors their eighth win of the season and set up a winner-take-all matchup for the Iota League title next Friday against El Toro at Fullerton.

Echaves knows that the game is for more than just a league title.

“Next week is the way you want, ideally, at the beginning of the season, a magical season to end, playing for the league title in the last game of the season,” Echaves said. “That’s key because with the way that Orange County football works now is, the leagues and the placement, they place you based off of your power rating.

“And for us, the league championship is important. That dictates [how] they set a parameter. We’re gonna go play this game, and we’re gonna do the best we can, and those championships really matter to us.”

Regardless of the outcome next Friday, Troy, Irvine and El Toro are all expected to make appearances in the CIF playoffs in November. However, the matchup between Troy and El Toro will likely go a long way to determining brackets and divisions for not only the two programs, but teams across the Southern Section.

Irvine fell out of Iota League title contention with the loss on Friday, but the Vaqueros have their sights set on the playoffs regardless.

“We figured this was the tuneup for the [playoffs]. We knew that going ahead into this game. Iron sharpens iron is what we always say,” Irvine Coach Tom Ricci said.
”So we go into this game thinking, Hey, you know what? There’s gonna be a tough ball game. This is gonna get us ready for Division 8 [CIF]. 
That’s what we’re looking for.”

Despite the loss, the Vaqueros (6-3, 2-2) remained in the game for the entire night and generally played well. Led on offense by quarterback Sina Saferzadeh and top receiver Enzo Cahoon, Irvine kept pace with an electric Mundt-heavy Troy attack.

Saferzadeh was relied upon as a runner and thrower heavily on Friday, per usual. The senior totaled 20 passing attempts and 15 rushing attempts for 225 all-purpose yards against Troy, a workload that has remained steadily high-usage throughout Irvine’s season.

His big play on the night came early when he hit Cahoon for a 46-yard score in the air to tie the game at seven less than a minute after Troy took an early lead. Saferzadeh also scored the touchdown to bring the Vaqueros within one with under a minute to go, but could not connect with Riedel to put Irvine ahead and effectively close the game.

The quarterback, who also starts at linebacker for the Vaqueros, nearly had a game-changing play when he intercepted a Troy pass and returned the ball 83 yards for what would’ve been a touchdown that gave Irvine a lead before the half had it not been for a block in the back penalty against Irvine. Instead, the ball came back to the spot of the foul and the Vaqueros took a knee to close the half. 

In spite of the loss, Irvine is well-positioned for a CIF run with six wins on the year and a chance for a seventh next week when it hosts Sonora Friday night to close out the regular season.