South Coast League : El Toro Beats Laguna Hills to Continue Two Streaks

After facing four consecutive teams boasting unbeaten records, El Toro High School drew an opponent Friday night that had been having an entirely different season. Laguna Hills had yet to win a game coming in, and it was clear from the outset that El Toro wasn’t about to spoil the Hawks’ “streak.”

The Chargers ran up a 28-0 halftime lead en route to an easy, 35-0, South Coast League victory that boosted El Toro to 3-0 in league and 4-2 overall. More important, it kept El Toro even with 3-0 Mission Viejo. Laguna Hills fell to 0-2 and 0-5 overall.

“The schedule has been tough and we need a break,” El Toro Coach Bob Johnson said after last week’s 14-0 win over Irvine.

The Chargers got more than a break Friday night. This was almost a bye.

What El Toro did get out of the game, though, was a shot of confidence for an offensive unit that has struggled in recent weeks.

Sophomore quarterback Bret Johnson, the coach’s son, couldn’t have had a much better evening if the Hawk secondary had to play with blindfolds. He completed 14 of 19 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown. He was intercepted once, but only because his receiver turned the wrong way.

“We’ve been working hard on offense all week,” Bret Johnson said. “Maybe that’s why we stayed in there a little longer than usual.”

El Toro, leading, 21-0, in the final minute of the second half, put together a 65-yard, 5-play scoring drive that would have made Joe Namath jealous. The Chargers scored on a 14-yard draw by Scott Ross with nine seconds left in the half.

“We weren’t trying to run up the score,” the younger Johnson said. “We just wanted to get some work in on our two-minute drill for the games coming up.”

And they knew they’d really look cruel if they worked on it in the fourth quarter.

Laguna Hills, on the other hand, managed just 78 yards of total offense in the first half and not much more in the second, when the game was virtually out of reach.

The Hawks got a first down on the El Toro 9-yard line late in the fourth quarter but could not punch the ball over the goal line--even when Coach Paul Weinberger put 6-1, 260-pound defensive tackle Dennis Danzer in at fullback.

It looked as if Laguna Hills was going to score with 1:49 left in the game when Bryan Worthington, El Toro’s backup quarterback, fumbled in the end zone and fell on the ball for an apparent safety.

But the Hawks had 12 men on the field.

The Charger defense allowed just six Hawk plays of more than 10 yards, and the longest was 14.

“The defense has been playing very well,” Bob Johnson said. “They’re building each week, playing better and better.

“We did want to boost the offense and, let’s be honest, Laguna Hills is not the same caliber as the last few teams on our schedule.”

Ten different El Toro players had rushes Friday, as the Chargers ran for 169 yards to balance their attack.

Ross had just three carries but scored two touchdowns. Chad Fouts had two rushes but rolled up 61 yards, including a 36-yard touchdown run. And wide receiver Scott Miller had six catches for 63 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Weinberger tried a lot of combinations, too . . . but he was acting out of desperation. Starting quarterback Pat Buckley completed 3 of 4 passes for 14 yards. Wayne Helm, a pitching prospect with a 90 m.p.h.-fastball, played the second half, completing 2 of 5 for 13 yards.

All of which leads to the conclusion that Weinberger doesn’t have much confidence in his passing attack. The Hawks, trailing by three touchdowns midway through the second quarter, still attempted just nine passes on the night.

In other South Coast League action:

Irvine 21, San Clemente 6--Jimmy Raye ran for one touchdown and threw for another to help the Vaqueros to a win over the Tritons at San Clemente.

Raye’s 66-yard keeper late in the second quarter put the Vaqueros (2-1 in league and 5-1 overall) ahead to stay. The Irvine quarterback also completed a 54-yard touchdown pass to Peter Brantley in the fourth quarter.

San Clemente (0-3, 1-4-1) took the early lead on quarterback Alex Baker’s 3-yard run in the first quarter. Kicker John Valdez, however, missed the extra point.

The Tritons took command in the second half after Baker dislocated his shoulder on the first play of the third quarter.

San Clemente managed just 41 yards on offense in the second half without Baker.

Capistrano Valley 31, Dana Hills 14--Quarterback Scott Stark completed 20 of 35 pass attempts for 259 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Cougars to the win in Dana Point.

The Cougars improved their league record to 2-1 and are 5-1 overall. Dana Hills slipped to 0-2 and 2-4.