Crean Lutheran captures hard-fought 10-9 victory over Sonora for new head coach Rick Curtis

Jake Ramirez of Crean Lutheran hauls in a catch as Jack McDonald of Sonora defends during Friday’s game. (Photo courtesy John Luciano, Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs)

Crean Lutheran High School’s football team held on for a 10-9 non-league victory over Sonora Friday night at the Saints on-campus stadium giving new head coach Rick Curtis a win in his debut as the school’s head coach following a long delay to the start of the season.

The season, originally delayed by the coronavirus pandemic in August, began with two teams battling it out until the end. Attendance was limited to fans invited by players due to health and safety guidelines. Fans wore masks and were asked to maintain proper social distancing.

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It was the first time that Crean Lutheran has played on its campus field in a while. The Saints previously played at Irvine Stadium and Portola.

“This is great, the school is fantastic and the support has been tremendous from the whole administration has been so supportive and I’ve got a great staff and these guys do a great job,” Curtis said. “We had meetings after meetings to get it ready with safety protocols. It’s a lot of work but to make it work for the boys, it’s all worth it. It was very satisifying, needless to say.”

Sonora, playing its first game under new Coach Kevin Oberlander, gave the Saints all they could handle.

“We knew they were a Wing-T team and a physical team, but I was really impressed with our defense,” Curtis said. “They ran around and flew to the ball and tackled. That’s the one thing we’ve really been working hard on is our tackling because they didn’t tackle very well last year.

“So we thought the first thing to be able to turn this thing around is to tackle and guys were flying all over the place. We just need to execute a little bit better on offense. I think we’ll be fine. We ran the ball very well with David Huff and Brad Cooper but the offensive line did a good job.”

Cooper rushed for 74 yards and Huff ran for 64 yards. Sophomore quarterback Gavin Rogers, in his first start for the Saints, was also solid passing for 66 yards.

The game was tied 7-7 at halftime but Connor Grace made a 33-yard field goal with 5:50 left in the third quarter to give Crean Lutheran a 10-7 lead. Grace had a 42-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter blocked.

“I was a bit nervous going out after the first one was blocked but I had confidence in my team and I learned from my mistakes and was able to get it through which turned out to be the game-winner,” Grace said. “I’m proud of the boys; they worked hard after all these COVID things we’ve gone through I’m so happy to see everyone out here tonight.

“It’s something special, I truly didn’t think that we were going to be back out here. But I’m very blessed to be here and it’s good to finish the senior year the way it’s supposed to be. “

Grace was also happy to see Curtis get a win.

“He and the coaching staff he’s hired has done such a tremendous job and I can already see it (the program) going up in the next couple of years,” he said.

Crean Lutheran took an early 7-0 lead on a 3-yard TD run by Huff with 9:30 left in the second quarter. The run was set up by a 49-yard run by Cooper. Sonora tied the game 7-7 on a 15-yard TD run by Steven Rodriguez with 2:32 left in the first half.

Trailing 10-7, the Raiders inched closer when Herman Venegas tackled Rogers in the end zone for a safety to close the gap to 10-9 with 8:45 left in the game.

But the Crean Lutheran defense was up to the challenge the rest of the way. Sonora got the ball back on its own 44-yard line with one minute left but the Saints defense held.

“I think (Blake) Slezak and Cooper played well and Caeden Chase played really well but our whole defensive line did a great job and our DBs made some great plays,” Curtis said.

Matt Mahoney, battling an ankle injury, also stood out late in the game on defense, Curtis said.

Sonora quarterback Deon Garcia passed for 62 yards and the Raiders got solid efforts from running backs Rodriguez (65 yards), Devon Corros (63 yards) and Josiah Binggeli (41 yards).

VIDEO COURTESY KHAMIS PRODUCTIONS

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