Santa Ana Starts Fast, Wins, 21-14 : Esperanza’s Second-Half Rally in Opener Falls Short

Santa Ana High School scored three touchdowns within 12 minutes in the first half and then seemed to lose interest while breezing to a 21-14 victory over Esperanza Thursday night in the season opener for both schools in Santa Ana Stadium.

Santa Ana opened with 112 yards rushing in the first quarter with backs Garner Hicks and Danny Tuioti barely breaking a sweat. But someone should have left a wakeup call for the Saints in the second half, when they went through the motions with a big lead that nearly vanished.

“We got the lead and then everybody thought the game was over,” said Jesse Rosas, Santa Ana quarterback. “We thought it was going to be a tough game, but we scored three touchdowns and everybody thought that was it.”

Esperanza made the game interesting, however, by taking advantage of two lapses by the Saints. First, a personal foul for spearing kept Esperanza’s only substantial drive alive , allowing the Aztecs to score with seven seconds remaining in the first half.

Keith McDonald, Esperanza’s junior quarterback, threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Reid Pullen and then tailback Lance Brown scored on a two-point conversion run to cut Santa Ana’s lead to 21-8.

Esperanza scored its second touchdown with 2:34 remaining to play after tackle Brendan Stai recovered a Santa Ana fumble at the Esperanza 45. McDonald, who completed 11 of 21 passes for 144 yards, set up the score with a 22-yard pass to Pullen.

“I thought we attacked them in the second half and showed we’re a pretty good football team,” said Gary Meek, Esperanza coach. “Unfortunately, we dug ourselves into a big hole and were forced to pass a little more than we had to. It’s a good thing we don’t have to play Santa Ana every week.”

Tuioti led Santa Ana’s opening rampage by scoring on runs of 15 and 45 yards to give the Saints a 14-0 lead. Rosas ended Santa Ana’s scoring by teaming with split end Octavio Medina on a nine-yard scoring pass with 4:20 left in the first half for a 21-0 lead.

Tuioti had 63 yards rushing in the first half but added only 17 yards in the second half. Hicks, the game’s top rusher with 83 yards, gained only one yard after halftime.

“We’re going to be a fine team, but we’re going to have to learn how to play 48 minutes,” said Dick Hill, Santa Ana’s coach. “Once we smooth everything out, we’ll be fine.”