Santa Ana powers to 29-0 victory over Orange to capture Orange Coast League title

Saints dominate the battle of undefeated league teams at Santa Ana

Santa Ana celebrates after winning the Orange Coast League title Friday night at Santa Ana Stadium. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, for OC Sports Zone).

Santa Ana’s football team left little doubt Friday night about which team is the best in the Orange Coast League and signaled it is ready to go for the CIF Division 8 playoffs.

The Saints dominated the Orange Coast League showdown with Orange winning 29-0 at Santa Ana Stadium in front of an estimated 3,500 fans to capture the outright league title.

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo

Santa Ana heads out to the field for Friday's showdown with Orange.

Santa Ana Coach Charlie TeGantvoort celebrates the victory.

Patrick McMorris of Santa Ana (No. 2) looks on.

Patrick McMorris (left) and Drew Ramirez had a big game for the Saints.

Quarterback Julian Gomez gets ready to hand the ball off.

Orange quarterback Daylen Pedroza drops back to pass as Lalo Iniguez pursues him.

Orange coach Robert Pedroza looks on in the final minutes Friday night.

Orange fans cheer their team on.

Orange fans support their team.

Julian Gomez of Santa Ana drops back to pass.

Nick Larriva of Santa Ana hangs on to the ball Friday night.

Orange cheerleaders encourage their team.

Patrick McMorris picks up a gain against Orange.

The Santa Ana band performs at Friday's game.

Drew Ramirez of Santa Ana (No. 3) fires up the Saints defense.

“We’re just really proud of how hard our guys worked,” Santa Ana Coach Charlie TeGantvoort said. “They do such a good job of being good people and this is just a prime example of good things happening to good people and our kids are definitely a prime example of good people.”

Santa Ana (8-2, 5-0) blanked Orange, which was averaging 56 points a game. Orange (8-1, 4-1) had an 8-game winning streak coming into the game.

“Our defense is great and we have one of the best defensive coordinators in the state,” TeGantvoort said. “Dee Meza is an amazing coach and the defense just played lights out.”

Leading the way for Santa Ana was defensive back Drew Ramirez, who forced a fumble which set up a Saints score and also had a touchdown run.

“Drew Ramirez leads that defense,” TeGantvoort said. “Him and Zennen Flores and Nick Larriva, we have such great talent and Drew gets everybody settled. I could go on and on and name every one of these kids. They all had great plays tonight.”

The players, after their best effort of the season, celebrated the victory with the rest of the student body. The players exchanged high fives with the students on the front rows of the bleachers before heading to a team celebration with their coaches at the middle of the field where TeGantvoort emphasized how proud he was of them for securing the Saints’ third league title in a row.

Santa Ana was ranked fourth in this week’s CIF Division 8 poll was Orange was third in Division 9.

“We knew coming in, it was going to be a big game,” said Ramirez, who had five catches for 32 yards. “There was a lot of social media talk so that gave us more energy. I feel we out-physicalled them. We came prepared and the coaches really got us ready for this week and we executed.”

“This victory was exciting, we knew what we had to do,” added Saints quarterback Julian Gomez, who passed for 54 yards and capably directed the Saints offense. “This league title is important, especially because it was against Orange. We came out with the victory.  Shout out to my defensive coach Meza. Great game plan.”

It was all Santa Ana on this night.

Heralded all-purpose back Patrick McMorris, on the biggest stage of the year, led Santa Ana rushing for 254 yards on 24 carries and two touchdowns. He sealed the victory with a 60-yard TD run with 4:16 left in the game.

Before that, McMorris had a 54-yard TD run.

“He was all right,” TeGantvoort joked. “Patrick is just another great player and just a great kid and we’re blessed to have him on our team.”

“It was great, it was definitely a team effort,” said McMorris, who also had a 20-yard catch. “Everybody worked and did their assignments; twenty-nine to zero, what can you say?”

The Saints other scores came on a 7-yard TD run by Ramirez and a 16-yard touchdown pass from  Gomez to Jesus Cruz. McMorris ran for the 2-point conversion after the first TD.

Orange was plagued by key penalties on both offense and defense and could not get much going, losing the ball once on a fumble.

Quarterback Daylen Pedroza led the Panthers with 116 yards passing but Santa Ana was able to contain Orange’s ground game. The Panthers weren’t able to get any long running plays. Pedroza was the leading rusher with 65 yards.

Receiver Branden Estrada had four catches for 50 yards.

The Panthers reached the 20-yard line in the first half, but the drive stalled there. The Panthers won the CIF Division 13 title last year and figure to be a formidable entry in the Division 9 playoffs this year.

                                 STATS

ORANGE           00     00    00     00    —  00

SANTA ANA      00     08    07     14    —  29

RUSHING: Orange Pedroza 12-65, Moses 8-32; Santa Ana McMorris 24-254, Leon 2-25.

PASSING: Orange Pedroza 13-20-0, 116 yards; Santa Ana Gomez 8-13-0, 54 yards.

RECEIVING: Estrada 4-50, Orendain 3-19; Ramirez 5-32, McMorris 1-20.

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