Saddleback players celebrate after Friday’s non-league victory over Santiago. (PHOTOS: Jacob Ramos, For OC Sports Zone).
Relying on steady offensive contributions and a late pick-six, Saddleback topped Santiago 26-7 in Friday night’s week zero football matchup between the North Orange County neighbors at Saddleback Stadium.
Defense turned to offense early on for the Roadrunners, who recovered a forced fumble deep in Santiago territory midway through the first quarter to set up an early redzone opportunity.
Saddleback, led by quarterback Andre Scott cashed in on the defense’s play by scoring an early touchdown on a screen pass to Favian Soria. A blocked extra point kept the lead to 6-0 for Saddleback, but the Scott to Soria connection was one that never relented on Friday.
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Scott found the end zone through the air twice against Santiago, both via short screen passes to his number one target, Soria. Postgame, Scott talked to OC Sports Zone about what he sees on screen pass concepts in the redzone.
“Its more like, I’m reading [the] linebackers. If the linebacker doesn’t move, I pass it to the screen,” Scott said. “If not, I read it.”
Scott led all passers with 124 yards through the air on Friday. The senior completed 13 of 20 passes with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Soria pitched in with 44 yards and both of the Saddleback receiving touchdowns on the night, with his second coming in the second quarter to give the Roadrunners a lead they would never relinquish. He spoke about his season debut post game as well.
“Me and [Scott] had a good connection today,” Soria said. “We saw earlier in the game that [Santiago’s] defense was a little more spread out, so we just went for it.”
It wasn’t just the air attack that was clicking for Saddleback.
On the ground, Fabian Bravo led the team in rushing with 52 yards on 13 attempts with a touchdown. Bravo is the clear-cut lead back for the Roadrunners in 2025, on the field for the majority of situations and dominating touches in the red zone and around the goal line. Notably, he took a triple-option pitch from Scott late in the third quarter to extend the Roadrunner lead to 19-7.
Asked about the triple-option score, Scott walked through his mind when reading the defense once again.
“I’m reading the [defensive] end. If the end’s biting down, I take the ball, I bite down [and] run towards the contact,” Scott said. “Then I pitch out as soon as I get towards [the contact].”
Scott was also the team’s second-leading rusher, adding 18 yards on five carries. Adam Guadarrama supplemented Soria’s production nicely through the air, putting up 43 yards on 3 receptions.
On Santiago’s side, the Cavaliers struggled all night to produce offense after a touchdown drive capped off with a 34-yard scamper to the end zone by Mario Carbajal.
The rushing attack was the hallmark of the Santiago offense, with Carbajal totaling 69 yards on the ground and David Penaloza adding 30 of his own. Carbajal rushed 10 times to Penaloza’s seven.
However, the Cavaliers struggled mightily through the air.
Santiago only managed 47 yards total via pass plays, with 45 coming on one reception made by Nick Lopez in the third quarter. The reception flipped the field for Santiago headed into the fourth quarter only trailing by 12 before losing a fumble that allowed Saddleback to remain in full control on Friday.
The blunder was part of a night of ugly week zero football by both sides, with both teams totaling multiple personal fouls, unnecessary penalties and turnovers. It got ugliest for the Cavaliers when an errant pass led to a pick-six by Saddleback’s Andrew Alvarez that effectively sealed the game in the fourth quarter.
Despite the tough loss on the road, Santiago Coach Douglas Ozsvath remained optimistic.
“I saw a lot of good things. Mario Carbajal was running the ball really hard, Michael Hong and Oscar Buenrostro played great on the defensive side and made some great special teams plays for us, we just came up a little bit short,” Ozsvath said. “I’m proud of the way we fought to the end.”
Conversely, Saddleback Coach Rob Thompson felt his team could have played much better, despite the win.
“We got to get better, [when] we play better competition we can’t make those mistakes.” Thompson said postgame. “What we need is more focus at practice. We need guys that want to win games and they can show me that by being more focused at practice. Like, our special teams was a disaster today. That’s a point of emphasis for me, so we’re gonna be working heavy on that this week along with our run game.”
The mistakes were bountiful on both sides, as they tend to be in early-season high school football. Regardless, Saddleback was able to claw out a victory and will look to carry on momentum to a road bout with South El Monte next week.
Santiago will look to get their first win of the new season next week as it takes on city rival Rancho Alamitos at home.
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