HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : Orange Glen Gets Quick Start in 28-14 Victory Over San Pasqual

Orange Glen and San Pasqual High Schools are located four miles apart on Bear Valley Parkway. So when they step on the field each year to renew their rivalry, it’s fairly easy for their fans to get there to see the game.

The key Friday night, however, was to be at San Pasqual High School early. Very early.

Onlookers were still ambling through the gates, buying programs and exchanging neighborly greetings when Tim Richter of fourth-ranked Orange Glen took the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown.

For the rest of the night, No. 10 San Pasqual (2-1) was one step behind its Escondido rival, and Orange Glen (3-0) earned a 28-14 nonleague victory.

“We played with good intensity,” said Dave Lay, Orange Glen coach. “Our defense played tough and hard. We did the things we’ve got to do to be a factor in our league.”

Orange Glen quarterback Cree Morris completed 14 of 23 passes for 207 yards. Jake Nyberg was on the receiving end of 7 for 127 yards. Morris only threw one touchdown pass, to Nyberg, and it came with 5:40 left. By then, the game was decided.

Both schools open their league seasons next week. And San Pasqual Coach Mike Dolan said that, even had his team won Friday, he would have traded all three nonleague victories for one in next week’s Avocado League opener against San Marcos.

Still, it was a tough loss to take.

“Our defense played great,” Dolan said. “We just self-destructed in the middle of the second half.”

Orange Glen went ahead, 14-0, in the second quarter when Glenn Reyes capped a six-play, 66-yard drive with a 23-yard touchdown run on a reverse. Reyes, one of the county’s top sprinters, got the ball, cut through the left side of the line and outraced the defense to the end zone.

It could have been 21-0, because with four minutes left in the first quarter, Orange Glen’s Bill McNeil returned a punt 62-yards for an apparent touchdown. It was taken away when Orange Glen was called for an illegal block.

But San Pasqual wouldn’t buckle. Thanks to a determined Andy Loveland, San Pasqual closed the margin to 14-7.

The Eagles started at their 25 and went 75 yards in 15 plays. The touchdown came when Loveland faked a handoff and went up the middle for three yards. In all, the senior quarterback carried three times for 19 yards on the drive.

The Eagles tied it six minutes into the third quarter when Stuart Smith went off tackle for a 32-yard touchdown run.

But Orange Glen recovered Mike Escarcega’s fumble at the San Pasqual 37 with just over three minutes left in the third quarter, and four plays later, Shane Copeland went two yards untouched through the middle for the touchdown to make it 21-14.