Visko Ancich Gives Tustin a Lift : With Father in Cast, Fullback Leads Upset of Mater Dei

While Visko Ancich rushed, leaped, caught, scrambled and scored to spark Tustin High School to a 21-20 upset of Mater Dei Friday night, his father, Tustin Coach Marijon Ancich, could only sit as if he were cemented to his chair.

But let it be known that these were not normal circumstances.

The elder Ancich, having broken his leg last week during practice, was burdened by a leg cast, and was forced to coach from a platform 30 feet above the 2,500 fans at Tustin High School.

But while Marijon Ancich hovered, Visko Ancich covered, filling in for his father’s absence on the sidelines with the best game of his career.

Ancich rushed for 68 yards in 17 carries, caught five passes for 111 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead Tustin (2-0). But his final touchdown, on a two-yard run, proved to be the deciding score in the tension-filled game.

With Mater Dei (0-2) leading 20-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Ancich, a junior fullback, caught a 15-yard pass from Andy Borza, then ran three consecutive times to bring Tustin to the Mater Dei five-yard line. Two plays later he scored, and with David Basurto’s extra-point kick, the Tillers had a 21-20 lead with 8:24 left in the game.

Although Mater Dei quarterback Dan O’Neil was a serious threat through most of the game--he completed 10 of 13 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown in the first half--O’Neil was slowed in the game’s final minutes by Tustin’s defense, one that seemed to intensify and solidify with each fourth-quarter play.

Although O’Neil completed a 16-yard pass to Tino Chavez, and then scrambled for another five yards to bring Mater Dei to the 42, Tustin did not let up. With two minutes to go, Mater Dei faced a fourth-and-nine situation, and O’Neil, one of the county’s top quarterbacks, tried to dump a short pass to Chavez, but it fell short.

Tustin spent the final seconds handing the ball to Ancich for safekeeping until the clock ran out.

Along with O’Neil, who completed 14 of 23 passes for 227 yards, Mater Dei was led by Kealli Clifford, who scored three touchdowns and rushed for 58 yards in 13 carries.

Ancich, who scored his most impressive touchdown late in the second quarter on a 74-yard pass play from Borza, was somewhat nonchalant after the game. When asked what he thought of his performance, he stepped aside for a moment to join his teammates for 12 jumping jacks--a tradition, he said, when Tustin wins.

“It (the broken leg) has been hard for my dad,” Ancich said. “He doesn’t like not to be able to get around. I just wanted to do something for him.”

And do he did.