Ryan Ellis of Irvine picks up a gain Saturday against Irvine. (Photos courtesy James Tomlin)
Irvine’s football players took the field at University Saturday afternoon knowing that their CIF playoff fate was likely on the line.
But the inspired Vaqueros responded well with a 29-12 Pacific Coast League over University to improve their league mark to 2-1 with two weeks left in the regular season. The game was delayed a day because of inclement weather on Friday.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo
“Since the Woodbridge game, we talked that we have to take care of business week to week if we want to extend the season and that has been our goal from day one,” said Irvine Coach Erik Terry. “We want to play as long as possible. If we win a trophy or a championship, that stuff is all great. But that’s going to collect dust on a shelf and our guys buy into the fact that we want to create as many memories as we can and keep this group together as long as possible.”
The Vaqueros (3-5 overall) did that on Saturday, in front of a smaller than usual crowd at Uni.
“That was really the most complete performance with a lot of guys involved,” said Terry. “We have a kid who keeps a chart of who is getting the ball and at some point he came over to me and he had nine or 10 different guys with lines who had been getting touches and when we play like that, we’re pretty good. You don’t who is going to touch the ball.”
Marc Filia led the Vaqueros passing for three touchdowns and 172 yards and also rushed for 51 yards.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Filia said. “Our coaches challenged us yesterday saying ‘don’t let the outside factors affect our play today’ and our guys did a great job of that. I’m proud of us for coming out and playing Irvine football.”
Running back Ryan Ellis was also solid, rushing for 59 yards,
Ellis scored on a 2-yard TD run in the first quarter and Tyson Matthews converted the conversion to put Irvine ahead 8-0.
Eddie Castillo rushed for 219 yards and a touchdown for University (2-6, 1-2).
University put together a solid opening drive behind the running of Castillo, moving the ball to the Irvine 11-yard line. But quarterback Thomas Keeling was stopped for no gain on a fourth down and Irvine took over.
“That kind of set the tone defensively,” Terry said. “It gave our offensive guys a charge. But we still make these mental mistakes because we’re dealing with 16 and 17-year-old kids. That’s the beauty of the job.”
“That was a big one early,” said University Coach Scott Meyer. “I think we took seven minutes off the clock on that first drive and came out with no points. We wracked up a bunch of yards, we just have to work on converting points when we get down inside the red zone.”
Irvine built a 15-6 lead at halftime.
Filia tossed an 8-yard TD pass to Bryce Tanikawa to cap the first half.
In the third quarter, FIlia connected with Kade Zimmerman on a 9-yard TD pass to make it 22-6. Jacob Haley then hauled in a 40-yard TD pass from FIlia with 6:37 left in the third quarter to give Irvine a 29-6 lead.
University’s other score came when Branton Lucas scored on a 1-yard TD run with 4:19 left in the third quarter.
Lucas rushed for 61 yards while Keeling passed for 74 yards with two interceptions.
“I’m really proud of the effort,” Meyer said. “We ran the ball really, really well. We had a couple penalties and a couple turnovers that stalled some drives. But overall, I’m real proud. We’ve run the ball the last few weeks and defensively, they got a big play on that pass, but we’ve really improved the last few weeks and our guys are continuing to battle and play hard and play together.”
On the other side of the field, Terry was praising the effort of his players. Haley, Ellis and Filia were among the standouts.
“Jacob Haley has been an unbelievable story…to be out for two years with an ACL injury. As soon as we get the nominations for courage award, he’s right up there. He really could have shut down and he’s had a phenomenal season.”
Terry was expecting big contributions from Ellis.
“We knew Ryan was going to have a big game,” he said. “Ryan has been dealing with some personal issues this week and I tried to remind him, ‘this is where you get it all out of your system.’ He was dynamite.”
Filia showed the leadership and spark the Vaqueros needed.
“He hung in the pocket and trusted his protection and when he got on the run, he kept his head down,” Terry said. “He has developed the confidence and the field awareness and just gets better every week.”
STATS
IRV 00 15 14 00 – 29
UNI 00 06 06 00 – 12
RUSHING: Irvine Ellis 11-59, Filia 8-51; Uni Castillo 34-219; Lucas 13-61.
PASSING: Irvine Filia 16-23-1, 172 yards, 3 TDs; Uni Keeling 7-18-2. 74 yards.
RECEIVING: Irvine Haley 5-64, Tanikawa 5-42; Uni Lucas 3-42, Elashegh 2-21.
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone: timburt@ocsportszone.com
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