Santa Ana Valley’s Julian Pimental heads to the end zone as Savanna’s Anthony Becktell defends. (Photos courtesy Mark Bausman).
Santa Ana Valley High running back back Mario Trujillo set single-game career highs in rushing and touchdowns as he led the Falcons to a 60-30 victory over Savanna Friday night in an Orange League game at Glover Stadium.
Trujillo rushed for 218 yards and scored five touchdowns as Santa Ana Valley won its fifth consecutive game and improved its record to 6-1 and 2-0. Despite playing a spirited second-half, Savanna fell to 0-7 and 0-2.
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”Our hard work in the off season is paying off,” said Trujillo. “Our team keeps playing hard, we never get down.”
Falcons coach Fred Macias said Trujillo leads by example.
“Mario is our captain and our leader,” said Macias. “He’s been in the weight room since January and his leadership rubs off on the other guys. I’m very happy with our ground game; it looked good and we executed tonight.”
The Falcons defense, led by Brian Solis, Chris Bladimir, Luis Villanueva and Kevin Andrede, forced five turnovers and the offense converted four of those miscues in touchdowns.
On the Rebels first play of the game from scrimmage, Villaneva picked a fumble and returned it to the Savanna one-yard. On the next play Trujillo scored to make it 6-0.
Three plays following a Rebels field goal, Falcons quarterback Tom Guzman connected on a 58-yard TD pass to Julian Pimental. Later in the quarter, and one play after Andrede’s interception, Trujillo scored his second TD of the game on a 37-yard run to give the SAV a 19-3 lead after the first quarter.
Junior Martinez scored on a 3-yard run to up the Falcons lead to 26-3 early in the second quarter. Bladimir’s interception set up Trujillo’s third touchdown of the game, this one a 31-yard TD run. Moments later and one play after Solis foiled another Rebels drive with an interception, Guzman threw a 70-yard TD pass Pimental as SAV extended its lead to 39-3.
But Savanna took advantage of a Falcons turnover and put together a 55-yard scoring drive that quarterback Noah Ramirez capped off with a 21-yard TD run to cut the Falcons lead to 39-10 at the half.
The teams combined to score five touchdowns in the third quarter. Rebels running back Brian Uriostegui had TD runs of 14, 15 and 33 yards in the quarter, while Trujillo scored on runs 51 and 44 yards. Uriostegui finished with 132 yards rushing on 12 carries. Guzman passed for 188 yards and two TDs and Pimental caught five passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns for Santa Ana Valley.
“Our guys never quit and kept playing hard to the very end and I’m proud of them,” said Savanna Coach Mike Willey, whose team has been riddled with injuries this season.
The game was plagued with penalties and numerous delays and took over three hours to complete.
—Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone
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