High School Football: Estancia offense sputters

Arguably the most joyous moment for the Estancia High football team, or at least one member of it, happened a few minutes after the final whistle Friday night at Jim Scott Stadium.

The Eagles celebrated their senior night. At the end, Estancia senior Cristian Quinones asked Isabelle Cruz to the homecoming dance. She said yes.

Searching for more positives during the game itself would have been a struggle, at least offensively.

Saddleback blanked the Eagles, 8-0, in the Orange Coast League opener for both teams. It’s the first time the Eagles have been shut out in a league game in Coach Mike Bargas’ 10-year tenure.

“We needed to put some points up on the board,” Bargas said. “I thought our defense did a pretty good job, but we didn’t get enough first downs and we didn’t get any points. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board on offense and try to figure out a way to get some points on the board. We’re still trying to figure it out.”

Saddleback (3-3) dominated time of possession with its rushing attack. Both Valentine Perea and Geovanni Estrada finished with 88 yards rushing, Perea on 22 carries and Estrada on one more than that. It was Estrada who finally got the Roadrunners on the scoreboard, powering the ball into the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line with 3:19 remaining in the first quarter. Perea then ran in the two-point conversion.

Estancia (1-5), which has lost five straight games, failed to get much of anything going offensively. The Eagles’ best drive of the game spanned the late third quarter and early fourth, but it stalled at the Saddleback 20-yard line. On second down, an under-thrown pass into the end zone was intercepted by Saddleback’s Enrique Hernandez.

“I was getting ready to go field goal, because Andy Martinez has got a pretty good leg,” Bargas said. “We ended up tripping up on ourselves.”

The Eagles defense held, however. Estancia got the ball back at midfield midway through the fourth. This time, Estancia could only get the ball to the Saddleback 37-yard line. Three incomplete passes later, the Eagles punted.

The defense again held. Estancia called its last timeout with 2:08 remaining, expecting to get the ball back. This time, the Eagles were unlucky. Saddleback’s punt was botched, but Fabian Camargo ran it 31 yards for a first down to effectively end the game for the visitors.

Estancia was able to run the ball effectively at times in the second half with senior Tyler Ross, who had nine carries for 44 yards. But the Eagles had no play all night that went for more than 11 yards, that one coming on Eric Carrasco’s pass to Trevor Brown.

The game was scoreless at halftime, despite the fact that Estancia had just two offensive series in the first half and ran just seven plays. Interceptions on defense by Quinones and Rolando Yanez helped.

“We haven’t been able to establish the run game,” Bargas said. “We just need to figure it out. We’ll keep working on this thing. We have great kids, we’ve just got to figure out the right formula … We still have four games left. We’ve got to finish strong.”

Estancia continues league play against defending champion Calvary Chapel on Thursday at Jim Scott Stadium. Calvary Chapel is the designated home team.

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Orange Coast League

Saddleback 8, Estancia 0

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Saddleback 0 – 0 – 8 – 0 — 8

Estancia 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0

THIRD QUARTER

Sad – Estrada 1 run (Perea run), 3:19.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

Sad – Estrada, 23-88, 1 TD; Perea, 22-88.

Est – Ross, 9-44.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

Sad – Torres, 4-10-1, 69.

Est – Carrasco, 7-15-1, 48.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

Sad – Roa, 4-69.

Est – Pearce, 2-13.