‘It was a stinker,’ Woodbridge football coach says after 40-21 loss to Santa Ana

Players from Woodbridge and Santa Ana meet before Thursday’s game.

It wasn’t the way Woodbridge’s football team wanted to wrap up the non-league portion of its schedule.

The Warriors were victimized by three turnovers which led to scores and fell to an inspired Santa Ana team 40-21 last Thursday at Santa Ana Valley.

SANTA ANA DEFEATS WOODBRIDGE IN NON-LEAGUE GAME

Woodbridge (2-3) has a bye this week before opening Pacific Coast League play Friday, Sept. 28 against Irvine at Irvine Stadium.

Woodbridge Coach Rick Gibson gave Santa Ana credit but was not pleased with his team’s play.

“I was disappointed to end on that kind of a note, that was not very good,” he said.

Woodbridge is considered the early season favorite to win the PCL. But the Warriors went through an up and down season with victories over two tough teams Cypress (35-14) and Pacifica (28-14) at home.

Their losses came to three talented squads, Fountain Valley (35-20), El Modena (13-7) and Santa Ana.

At one point, Woodbridge was ranked No. 2 in the CIF Division 8 poll. Now, the Warriors have dropped out of it.

“If they want to do well in league, they’ve got to practice better and they’ve got to come out ready to play a football game,” Gibson said. “I’m just not sure that happened tonight.”

Gibson knows that Irvine, which is coming off a 22-9 victory over Dana Hills, will be ready for the Warriors next week.

“The league opener against Irvine they will be ready and rolling and we just have to practice better,” Gibson said. “We have to be ready for a game. I just don’t think that happened.”

Gibson had an frank assessment of his team’s play against Santa Ana.

“It was a stinker,” he said.

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