Orange among teams out to dethrone defending champ Santa Ana as league play begins

QB Daylen Pedroza leads Orange High’s high powered offense. (Photo courtesy Mark Bausman, For OC Sports Zone)

Santa Ana High’s football team is the defending Orange Coast League champion.

But Orange and Calvary Chapel are among the teams hoping to dethrone the Saints, who also won the Golden West League title in 2017 and 2016.

League play begins Thursday night when Costa Mesa (2-3) plays Santa Ana (2-3) at Santa Ana Stadum.

Also this week, Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana (5-0) meets Estancia (1-4) Thursday night at Orange Coast College and on Friday, Orange (4-1) faces Saddleback (1-4) at Segerstom.

Orange looks like the team to watch but Coach Robert Pedroza said respect must be given to Santa Ana, which lost a number of players from last year’s team that finished 10-3 and advanced to the semifinal round of the Division 8 playoffs.

“It’s going to be a grind,” Pedroza said. “Obviously, everybody is waiting for week 10 (when Orange meets Santa Ana) but there is still week six, seven, eight and nine and we got to get better as a team on a weekly basis and bring it every day. Anybody can beat anybody on any given night, that’s the best part of high school football so it will be fun.”

Pedroza said there is a clear-cut favorite going into the league race.

“We can’t be favorites when Santa Ana keeps winning league titles,” he said. “They’e the favorite until somebody takes it from them. They’re a good football team and we have to be on our A game in order to play them. It will be a fun test for us.”

Orange has been wracking up a lot of points, defeating Garden Grove 48-0, Canyon 66-6, Westminster 76-7 and Irvine 60-14. The Panthers only loss was to Yorba Linda 34-27 in two overtimes.

Quarterback Daylen Pedroza, who has passed for 1,002 yards and six touchdowns and rushed for 386 yards and seven TDs, leads the offense.

Isacc Galvan has rushed for 602 yards and five touchdowns and Andrew Andrade has hauled in 18 catches for 402 yards and four touchdowns for the Panthers.

Santa Ana is coming off a bye week. The Saints’ last game was a 16-9 loss to Woodbridge on Friday, Sept. 20. The Saints wins came against Garden Grove (24-15) and Buena Park (33-26).

“It’s time to focus on league; we’re the defending champs and we got to start practicing like it and acting like it and get ready,” Coach Charlie TeGantvoort said after the loss to Woodbridge.

TeGantvoort said he is well aware of what Orange has accomplished this season.

“They’re a great team and extremely talented and they’re extremely talented evey year, so it’s nothing new,” he said. “We’ve got to get ready for them and get ready for everybody else.”

Santa Ana is led by junior quarterback Aldo Leyva and running backs  Daimien Feliz and Miguel Vaca, who missed the game against Woodbridge because of minor injuries.

Calvary Chapel, led by first year coach Pat McInally, could be a team to watch too. The Eagles are coming off a 49-21 victoy over Bishop Montgomey.

Costa Mesa, led by first year coach Jimmy Nolan, has shown some improvement with wins over Santiago (20-19) and La Quinta (35-7). The Mustangs were winless last season.

Estancia and Saddleback are both hoping for better league seasons after winning just game in nonleague play.

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