Mission Viejo forfeits two football games

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Mission Viejo, which is experiencing its least successful season this decade, was thrown for another loss on Wednesday when it was announced by the Southern Section office that the Diablos would forfeit their first two games of the season for using an ineligible player.

Mission Viejo will forfeit its 26-22 victory over Cincinnati (Ohio) Moeller on Sept. 1, and a 34-14 victory over Redondo the next weekend.

The player was not a starter.

‘I play the kids I’m told to play that are legal,’ Diablos Coach Bob Johnson said. ‘Something slipped through the cracks.’

Mission Viejo, which failed to win the South Coast League title this season after winning seven in a row, and lost a league game for the first time in 39 games -- a span dating to 1999 -- now has an overall record of 4-5-1. Redondo is now 7-3 and Moeller is 8-3.

The forfeits do not affect Mission Viejo’s playoff status because they did not affect the team’s league standing. By tying for second place behind Tesoro, the Diablos received one of three automatic qualifying berths from the league. Mission Viejo plays Orange Lutheran in a Pac-5 Division first-round game on Friday at Santa Ana Stadium.

-- Martin Henderson