PREP FOOTBALL : Century League Football : El Modena Takes a Stand and Shuts Out Foothill, 10-0

With just less than 5 minutes to go in the game, Foothill High School was on the El Modena 4-yard line having driven 72 yards in 15 plays. On the 16th, a second-down play that resulted in an incomplete pass, Foothill was called for illegal motion.

Instead of taking the penalty and pushing Foothill 5 yards back, El Modena Coach Bill Backstrom chose to let the play stand, forcing his team to stop Foothill 2 more times from 4 yards out.

The Vanguards did. They did all night, and El Modena beat Foothill, 10-0, in a Century League game at Tustin High.

The victory meant El Modena (5-5, 4-1) will enter the playoffs as the league’s No. 2 representative, Foothill (5-5, 3-2) will go as No. 3.

Backstrom’s confidence in his defense is not without solid footing. This was El Modena’s second league shutout. The Vanguards went through league play not allowing any opponent to score more than 7 points.

“With those guys out there, I’ll take the play every time,” Backstrom said. “They’ve played scrappy all year.”

Foothill quarterback John Shanahan, who had just been inserted in the game, looked ready to scrap all that when he completed his first 4 passes to lead Foothill on a 72-yard drive. But once on the 4, Shanahan was hurried into throwing incomplete passes. The last incomplete pass came with 4:46 remaining, and Shanahan throwing off balance with El Modena defenders hanging from him like fashion accessories.

“These guys bend but they never break,” Backstrom said. “Of course it took them 4 games to learn that.”

Backstrom referred to an 0-4 start by El Modena that threatened to end the season early.

“We could have easily packed it in and gone 0-10,” Backstrom said. “But these kids came back.”

El Modena went ahead, 7-0, with 6:02 left in the second quarter on Adam Garcia’s 25-yard pass to Pat Finn and Tim Hatcher’s conversion kick. The pass came with El Modena facing a third and 20. Garcia rolled left, then lofted the ball to the 5-foot 7-inch Finn, who almost made a complete turn to catch the ball as he fell in the end zone.

Hatcher closed out the game’s scoring with a 47-yard field goal as time ran out in the first half. It was Hatcher’s 12th field goal of the season--he leads all Orange County kickers in that category--and his seventh from 40 yards or more.

“If it’s 52 yards or in, he’s going to kick it,” Backstrom said.

Foothill’s only other threat came on its second possession of the third quarter, after Todd Delnoce’s interception at the El Modena 38. Six plays later, including a fake punt, Foothill was on the El Modena 13. But starting quarterback Chad Ressler, throwing as he was grabbed by defenders, lobbed a ball that was intercepted by Mike Vermillion on the 3.