Santa Ana Valley Limits Foothill to 10-0 Victory

Richard Lindner, Santa Ana Valley High School football coach, insists that the Falcons’ days as a perennial loser are drawing to a close.

And judging from Friday night’s 10-0 Century League loss to Foothill in Santa Ana Stadium, Lindner may be right. Though the defeat extended the Falcons’ losing streak to 17 games, Santa Ana Valley’s program made great strides towards a return to respectability.

The Falcons held Orange County’s seventh-ranked team to three points and 125 yards in the first 35 minutes of the game many expected to be a breeze for Foothill (4-0, 5-2).

“We said we could do it. We’ve said that the whole year,” Lindner said. “We should have won this game.”

The Knights grabbed a 3-0 lead after taking the opening kickoff and driving 60 yards in 11 plays to the Falcon 5. On third-and-5, running back John Fischbeck was thrown for a two-yard loss, and Foothill had to settle for a 24-yard field goal by Chad Smolanovich with 2:10 left in the quarter.

Foothill then turned the ball over the next three times it had possession and went into halftime with a field goal and 83 yards of offense to its credit.

Santa Ana Valley (0-4, 0-7) was still very much in the game going into the final quarter, but the Falcons hurt their own cause with several bad punts and two turnovers late in the game.

Foothill put together a brief 43-yard, 3-play drive late in the third quarter. The Knights took over on the Falcon 43 following a 24-yard punt by Valley and, after a 2-yard loss, quarterback Brian Horton completed a 19-yard pass to Keith Takabayashi. Horton then lofted a pass into the end zone, which was tipped by a Valley defender and caught by Foothill wide receiver Bill Medina for a touchdown. Carrick Brewster added the conversion kick as Foothill took a 10-0 lead with 59 seconds left in the third quarter.

Knight running back John McTaggart paced Foothill’s running game with 76 yards on 22 carries.

Quarterback James Shipp led the Falcons with 80 yards rushing on 9 carries and added 35 yards on 4 of 11 passing.