Uni quarterback Koa Saito rolls out and is pursued by Irvine’s Ieveck Guerrero. (Photos courtesy Jim Tomlin).
Irvine High School’s football team got back on the winning track with a 52-28 non-league victory over University Friday night at Uni.
The Vaqueros (2-3) led 21-6 at halftime and substituted freely in the second half. Irvine was coming off losses to Canyon, Troy and Long Beach Jordan.
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“It was a great game,” said Irvine Coach Tom Ricci on Saturday. “We knew that Uni was much improved over last year. Coach (Vince) Mesa has done a fantastic job with his program.
“As for us, we’ve been scheduling tough preseason teams to get ready for our city and league teams. I feel that even though we took those losses, we feel like it has sharpened us and made us better in the long run. That is our goal. The season is a marathon, not a sprint.
“We just hope to keep improving through the year.”
Ricci said the Vaqueros defense shined Friday night.
“Our defensive coordinator, Kyle Jaeger, did a great job with his scheme,” he said. “We had four different players with three sacks each. Harry Soltes was awesome patrolling and blitzing through the middle.
“AJ Godinez, Katrell May and Ievick Gurrero all recorded three sacks each along with Harry. Gabe Pacheco also had a breakout game at receiver with two TD’s.”
Irvine quarterback Joseph Tierney completed 3 of 7 passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns and also scored a TD. Kendyn Beaver was the Vaqueros leading rusher with 118 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns.
Evan Hasegawa rushed for 105 yards on 18 carries and two touchdowns. Pacheco had two receptions for 80 yards and two touchdowns.
University dropped to 2-3 overall.
“Tough loss for us,” said University Coach Vince Mesa. “We felt we had a chance to pull out the win, but our mistakes cost us. Irvine is a good team, and you can’t make those mistakes if you’re going to win. It was close the whole first half, we lost a key defensive player in the third and they took advantage of it.
“We had a nice rally in the fourth but it wasn’t enough. Some standout players offensively were Koa Saito, Blaine Anderson and Jai Williams.”
Saito threw for four touchdowns, Anderson caught four touchddown passes with eight catches for 224 yards and Jai had two, two-point conversions. Brooks Beckmann had another solid game with at least nine tackles and Jai added eight to nine tackles, Mesa added.
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