PREP FOOTBALL : El Toro Breezes to 31-12 Win : Good Field Position Helps Chargers Rout Fountain Valley

The Fountain Valley High School football team wasn’t just beaten by El Toro Friday--it was doomed.

In front of 3,000 at Mission Viejo High School, El Toro dominated virtually every phase of the game and came away with a 31-12 nonleague victory.

How dominating was El Toro? Offense: El Toro had 256 yards of total offense in the first half.

Fountain Valley didn’t make its initial first down until five minutes were left in the first half.

Defense: El Toro made eight tackles for losses.

Fountain Valley allowed big plays of 20 yards, 38, 19, 30, 14, 23 . . . you get the idea.

Field position: El Toro began five of its first six drives inside Fountain Valley territory.

Fountain Valley started its first three drives inside its 20-yard line.

“We played on half a field in the first half,” said Bob Johnson, El Toro coach. “That makes things a lot easier.”

Not so easy was setting up the Fountain Valley offensive game plan. Choosing to run away from 6-foot 5-inch, 250-pound defensive tackle Scott Spalding, Fountain Valley only found itself running into the waiting arms of 6-4, 230-pound tackle Cory Wayland.

Even a sub-par performance by its quarterback, Bret Johnson, failed to slow El Toro.

Johnson completed one of his first five passes and the fifth was intercepted. He would complete a total of four passes before leaving the game in the third quarter with the score 31-0. Still, two of his completions went for long touchdowns and another put the ball at the Fountain Valley one-yard line.

“I know Bret doesn’t think he had a good game, but I think stats are for the birds,” Johnson said. “The passes he completed were big, and he had some big scrambles for first downs.”

El Toro’s first touchdown was set up by Adam Brass’ 23-yard punt return to the Fountain Valley 22.

Ron Chocklet, who established the El Toro running game early by gaining 20 yards on El Toro’s first series, gained two yards on a run. Johnson then made an excellent play-action fake to Chocklet, rolled right and completed a 20-yard pass to tight end Mike Hoelker, who was standing quite alone in the end zone.

Johnson would roll to his right a few minutes later when he completed a 38-yard pass to Scott Miller on the Fountain Valley one. Chocklet scored from a yard out on the next play. Chocklet would score minutes later on a similar play after an eight-play, 50-yard El Toro drive to give the Chargers a 21-0 lead.

El Toro’s Chris Sekeres kicked a 43-yard field goal to make the score 24-0 late in the second quarter.

Of course, big leads don’t always mean a lot when these two teams play. A few years ago, El Toro had a 21-6 lead at halftime before a Fountain Valley quarterback by the name of Matt Stevens rallied his team for a win.

“Fountain Valley is a proud, classy school,” Johnson said. “We weren’t taking anything for granted. We weren’t comfortable with a 24-point lead in the first half.”

With that in mind, El Toro took to the air when it received the ball on its own 47 with a little more than a minute remaining in the first half.

Johnson completed a 30-yard sideline pass to Miller to put the ball on the Fountain Valley 23. On the next play, Johnson found Miller in the corner of the end zone with a 23-yard pass that proved to be El Toro’s final score.