Mater Dei’s Bru McCoy celebrates after scoring the Monarchs first touchdown in the second quarter of Friday’s game against IMG Academy in Santa Ana.Â
NOTE: This story was originally published on Sept. 22, 2018.
This national high school football showdown definitely lived up to the hype.
Mater Dei, ranked No. 3 nationally, rallied in the final minutes Friday night defeating top-ranked IMG Academy 28-24 in front of a standing-room-only crowd estimated at 10,000 at Santa Ana Stadium.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo.
The Monarchs (4-1) ended a 39-game winning streak by IMG, which suffered its first loss in four outings this year.
“It’s like I told my staff, we talk about kids being elite athletes,” said Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson. “I have an elite staff and they gave us two weeks to get us ready for this football game and you saw the results of that. We had this game planned to the T.”
There were only two scores in the first half, but the second half turned into a shootout and Mater Dei had a bit more firepower.
Junior quarterback Bryce Young scored on a 6-yard TD run with 1:06 left to lift the No. 3 ranked Monarchs to the victory in the nationally televised game.
“It was a big team win. I feel like we all stepped up,” Young said. “Offense, defense, coaches, I thought we did a great job,” Young said. “It was a tough one. IMG is a great team. As a brotherhood we came together and I’m glad to say we can get the win.”
“He so cool, calm and collected,” Rollinson said of Young. “I looked up and I thought I might have left too much time on the clock because of him and then we had some great blocking up front. It was a total team effort.
“The last drive was the confidence they have in Young and McCoy and the other kids.”
IMG took a 24-21 lead on a 35-yard field goal by Cameron Gillis with 3:27 remaining in the game.
But Mater Dei refused to fold. The Monarchs took over on their own 25-yard line and marched to the IMG 6. On a first down play, Young swept around the left side for the go-ahead score. Nick Lopez kicked the extra point to make it 28-24.
“It was a read; we’ve been reading that end all game,” said Young, a USC commit. “I felt like we had a good chance, he did take the bait and the receiver did a great job of blocking for me to be able to dive into the end zone was amazing.”
IMG got the ball back on its 20 following a touch back on the kick-off by Lopez but was unable to move the ball. The Monarchs took over and ran the clock out.
Young had an amazing night, completing 21 of 32 passes for 309 yards and three touchdowns.
IMG got great performances from running backs Trey Sanders (15 carries, 186 yards and a TD) and Noah Cain (133 yards on 24 carries and a TD).
It was a sloppy first half as both teams were victimized by penalties in the first half.
IMG led 7-6 at halftime but was penalized eight times for 95 yards and had two players ejected for personal fouls while Mater Dei was flagged 10 times for 87 yards. IMG wound up with 138 yards in penalties and Mater Dei 155 yards.
Play opened up in the second half.
Young connected with Sean Dollars on a 44-yard TD pass on a flea flicker and Young hit Mike Martinez for the two-point conversion to put Mater Dei ahead 14-7 early in the third quarter.
IMG countered with an 86-yard TD run by Sanders with 8:07 left in the third quarter to tie the game 14-14.
Mater Dei struck next when Young connected with lineman Myles Murao on a 12-yard TD pass to put the Monarchs ahead 21-14 with 6:53 left in the third quarter.
IMG came right back when quarterback David Baldwin hooked up with Michael Redding on a 22-yard TD pass with three minutes left to tie it up.
But after falling behind in the fourth quarter after the field goal, Mater Dei was determined to notch the win.
“It means a lot personally to the team,” said McCoy, who had 10 catches for 123 yards and a 21-yard TD catch in the second quarter. “This is kind of what you live for. It’s the biggest stage in the country and one of the biggest games in high school football of all-time. You come to a school like this to play in a game like this. I’m so happy for my teammates more than anything to see how happy they are and how happy Bryce is and the parents.
“I wanted to win for the guy next to me more than anything because I didn’t want to let them down. I couldn’t be happier.”
McCoy said the Monarchs talked at halftime about how much the game meant.
“We kind of all looked at each other like, ‘how bad do you want this?’ And I looked at the guy next to me and he wanted it as bad as I did,” he said. “So I knew we were going to come out and play hard and we were going to come out with it.”
STATS
IMGÂ Â Â Â 0Â Â Â 7Â Â 14Â Â 3Â Â Â Â –Â 24
MDÂ Â Â Â Â 0Â Â Â 6Â Â 15Â Â 7Â Â Â Â –Â 28
RUSHING: IMG Sanders 15-180, Cain 24-133; MD Harper 10-59, Young 7-15.
PASSING: IMG Baldwin 10-18-0, 102 yards, 1 TD; MD Young 21-33-1, 309 yards, 3 TDs.
RECEIVING: IMG Redding 2-28, Cain 2-21; MD McCoy 10-123, Harper 6-80.
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone
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