University battles back from tough loss to defeat Los Amigos in non-league battle

Koa Saito (left) and Blaine Anderson led University to a non-league win Friday. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

University High School’s football bounced back from a tough double overtime loss to Portola last week, grinding out a 21-7 non-league victory over Los Amigos Friday night at University.

The Trojans battled hard in a 35-34 loss last week, and they were eager to get into the win column against Los Amigos.

Uni responded with a solid effort in a hard-fought game.

Quarterback Koa Saito had a solid game leading the offense, throwing for 113 yards. Receiver Blaine Anderson had a touchdown catch and six receptions for 85 yards.

“I feel like we learned a lot from the last game,” said University Coach Vince Mesa. “We fixed a lot of little things that were messing up some of the plays, so we corrected those and I felt that was the difference tonight, doing the things we wanted to do. The effort was great, they always play hard.”

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The Trojans running game was solid led by Jai Williams, who had 86 yards rushing and a 1-yard TD to put the Trojans (1-2) ahead in the first quarter. Williams left the game with an injury in the third quarter but should be OK, Mesa said.

Saito, the quarterback, was thrilled with the win.

“It was a great team win on all aspects on the field, we were running hard, playing hard, Los Amigos was a great, physical team and I feel we were able to outplay them both sides, our dbs locked up, our offense was clicking for the first half,” said Saito.

“We had a slower second half for sure, we have some stuff to work on for sure though. It feels great, it’s definitely a weight off our shoulders. We had a close game last week against Portola, it came down to the final seconds, but we bounced back and that’s all that matters, we have a great season ahead of us and I’m excited to see what this team can do.”

Anderson, who hauled in a 1-yard TD from Saito to put the Trojans ahead 21-0, was also excited about the win.

“That was a crazy game, a lot of adversity that we faced,” he said. “It was a very scrappy game, it was a dogfight but we ended up coming through. We knew we could outplay these guys, it just came down to not making too many mistakes and playing to the best of our abilities. I’m really proud of our boys for fighting through that. Our goals, we got to make CIF (playoffs), we got to minimum pull out two of the three wins out in league, we’re making CIF this year.”

University was also led by senior Brooks Beckmann, who hauled in a 7-yard TD pass from Saito in the second quarter and also had a 34-yard interception return to the Los Amigos 1-yard line which set up the Trojans third score. However, he left the game with a shoulder injury, Mesa said. The extent of the injury was not known, the coach added.

Los Amigos (1-1) broke the shutout when Peter Hernandez scored on a 6-yard TD run late in the third quarter. Hernandez was the team’s leading rusher with 81 yards.

However, University limited Los Amigos to 10 yards passing, providing optimism for the Trojans for the rest of the season.

“Our league is really tough, it’s so competitive and there are so many good teams and they’re well coached so it’s going to be a fight all the way to the stretch,” Mesa said. “Like I’ve always said, If we can stay healthy, we’re going to be able to compete with everybody, hopefully Brooks is OK and we’re healthy for the most part,” Mesa said.

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