Santa Ana sets the stage for title showdown with decisive win over Saddleback

Santa Ana Coach Charlie TeGantvoort congratulates his players after Thursday’s win. (Photo: OC Sports Zone, Tim Burt).

Santa Ana High School’s football team continued to roll in Orange Coast League play, defeating Saddleback 58-6 Thursday night at Segerstrom for its sixth straight victory.

The Saints (7-2, 5-0) have outscored their last four opponents 198-6 with three shutouts. The shutout streak was snapped with a pick six by Saddleback in the first qurter but the Saints defense still hasn’t given up a point in four games.

Santa Ana appears ready for a showdown with Orange (5-2, 3-0) and barring some major upsets, it will most likely be for the league title on Friday, Oct. 28 at Santa Ana Stadium. Santa Ana has a bye next week. Santa Ana and Orange are in a virtual tie for first place. Orange plays Estancia Friday night.

Santa Ana took charge from the start in Thursday’s game.

A blocked punt and an interception set the stage for two early Santa Ana scores.

“I’m really proud of how the defense has progressed over the season,” said Santa Ana Coach Charlie TeGantvoort. “We had a bunch of new guys playing for the first time and they’re finally starting to play like veterans and I couldn’t be more proud of how they’re playing as a unit out there.”

The defense, led by Stephen Hughes and Kevin Osario, caused havoc all night for Saddleback quarterback Donovan Castellanos, who wound up passing for 76 yards with two interceptions. Antonio Morales was the leading Roadrunner receiver with nine catches for 53 yards.

Santa Ana held Saddleback to 23 yards rushing.

Santa Ana’s offense was excellent too, led by Jayderick Garcia, who had two touchdown runs and 164 yards rushing on 15 carries in one half.

“He’s getting better and also the running backs can’t do it without that great O-line giving protection and opening those holes,” TeGantvoort said. “The whole team is progressing, we didn’t have many returning starters and they started a little shaky but now we’re starting to hit our stride and we’re focused and get ready for the big one.”

Junior quarterback Sergio Torres was solid, completing 6 of 8 passes for 219 yards in one half as Coach TeGantvoort substituted freely to start the third quarter. Torres had two big pass plays to Joseph Foster, one of 70 yards and another of 90 yards. Foster had three catches for 171 yards.

The Saints blocked a punt on Saddleback’s first possession and took over on the Roadrunner 19 yard- line. Three plays later, Garcia scored on a 9-yard TD run.

On Saddleback’s next possession, Anthony Fields intercepted a pass and Garcia cashed it in with a 3-yard TD run.

Santa Ana’s Kevin Osorio then intercepted another pass on the Roadrunners next possession. The Saints drove to the 1-yard line and fumbled at the 1 with Saddleback recovering.

But when Saddleback got the ball, Santa Ana notched a safety to move ahead 16-0.

Saddleback then went up 23-0 when Torres connected with Cristian Ramos on a 29-yard TD pass.

The Roadrunners got on the scoreboard when Luis Lopez intercepted a pass and returned it 60 yards for a score midway through the first quarter.

But Santa Ana dominated the rest of the way, taking a 51-6 lead at halftime. Both coaches agreed to a running clock to start the second half.

Adrian Sanchez also hauled in a TD catch, Jacob Cervantes had a 56-yard TD run and Gabriel Ramirez Flores had a 1-yard TD run to cap the scoring for Santa Ana.

“We watched a lot of film this weekend and we wanted to run the ball, that opened up a lot for us,” said Garcia, who like his teammates can start to think about the match-up with Orange.

“We’re just going to go to practice and it’s like another game for us. I know it’s a big game, but we’re going to keep practicing hard and do everything we’re taught to do.”

Saddleback will try and bounce back next week at St. Margaret’s.

“I hate to say this, but we’re still learning how to make plays, right reads,” said Saddleback Coach Glenn Campbell. “We have Donovan as our quarterback, but he’s a wide receiver playing quarterback. Those pains come into play when he’s faced with adversity.

“This is his first time ever playing quarterback, we knew that coming in. We tried to take what we can get and try to make the easy throws. Sometimes, that’s not as easy as one would think.

“I thought we had a fighting chance, it’s all about momentum and when we got the pick six, that gave us momentum but the next play on defense, we give up a 70-yard bomb and that kind of takes the air out of you again.”

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