El Dorado Shuts Down Troy, 20-0 : Sutherland’s Passing Gets Golden Hawks Off to 2-0 Start

El Dorado High School’s defense limited Troy to 81 total yards and quarterback Dan Sutherland threw two long touchdown passes to lead the Golden Hawks to a 20-0 victory Thursday night in nonleague play at Fullerton District Stadium.

El Dorado, which dominated play for 48 minutes and didn’t allow a first down in the second half, never let Troy quarterback David St. Clair get going.

St. Clair, the senior who threw two touchdown passes and averaged 11.9 yards per carry last week in Troy’s 34-10 win over Garden Grove, completed 4 of 9 pass attempts for 25 yards, was intercepted once and sacked four times by the Hawks.

“He was the kid we had to shut down,” said Carl Sweet, El Dorado coach. “He was about 80% of their offense last week. I thought the defense did a great job.”

While defensive back Jeff Boucher and ends Todd Jackson and Brett Clark were making life miserable for St. Clair, the Hawk offense rolled up 186 yards passing and tailback Rich Chamberlain added 100 yards rushing.

Sutherland completed 14 of 21 pass attempts for 186 yards and two touchdowns. He threw a 20-yard scoring pass to tight end Barry Curtis with 6:57 left in the first half and then teamed with tailback Doug Ash on a short screen pass that Ash turned into a 40-yard scoring play in the last quarter.

The Hawks sealed their second straight win by scoring 13 points in the last quarter as Troy was able to generate only nine yards offensively after halftime.

“They beat us up on both sides of the line,” said John Turek, Troy coach. “We couldn’t get anything going in the second half.”

The Warriors had two opportunities to score. They gained possession on the Hawks’ 33-yard line in the first quarter, following an errant snap on a punt attempt, and moved to El Dorado’s 10. But tailback Torrey Shinault fumbled and Clark recovered for the Hawks.

Troy also forced a turnover in the fourth quarter when Lenny Wagner recovered a fumbled punt return on the Hawk 25. But El Dorado limited the Warriors to only one yard on the next four plays to kill the threat.

“We had some breakdowns on the special teams, but I saw a lot of improvement over last week,” Sweet said. “The defense played with intensity the whole game. I was worried all week about our passing, but I thought Dan played a good game.”