O’Neil Sparks Mater Dei With Passing, Defense

Happy?

Bruce Rollinson, Mater Dei High School football coach, slapped a bear hug on everything that wasn’t nailed down Friday after his team defeated St. Paul, 34-24, in the Angelus League opener for both teams.

Most deserving of Rollinson’s affection was quarterback Danny O’Neil, who completed 19 of 27 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns. O’Neil also played the entire game at free safety, saving a couple of touchdowns, one with a one-arm tackle, another by batting a pass away.

And he punted.

Tired?

O’Neil, who has led Mater Dei to three straight victories, looked as if he could go for an overtime period or two.

“I’m too pumped to be tired,” he said.

It was O’Neil who led the Mater Dei second-half charge that saw the Monarchs (3-3, 1-0) score 17 consecutive points in 13 minutes that bridged the third and fourth quarters.

On its first possession of the second half, Mater Dei drove from its 26 to St. Paul’s 23, where the drive stalled. Cliff Roberts kicked a 41-yard field goal to give Mater Dei a 20-17 lead. The drive consumed close to six minutes.

The St. Paul offense gained only 13 yards on its next two possessions, and a tired Swordsmen defense was picked apart by O’Neil, who drove his team from its own 37. O’Neil hit receivers on passes of 14, 9 and 13 yards, before completing a 31-yard touchdown pass to Rick Ellis. Ellis simply ran by a sagging St. Paul defense and caught O’Neil’s perfectly thrown pass at the goal line.

“My offensive line was incredible tonight,” O’Neil said. “No one got close. When you have that kind of time, you better be able to complete passes.”

Mater Dei would score again on an 8-yard CaeliiClifford run to make the score, 34-17, with 4:52 left in the game.

St. Paul scored on a 16-yard pass play from quarterback Albert Borunda to running back Sean McKinney with 2:26 left for the game’s final score.

It was McKinney’s 73-yard run midway through the second quarter that tied the game at 17.

That was St. Paul’s second big play of the half. Receiver Steve Corpus had caught a 49-yard touchdown pass from Borunda early in the second quarter.

“I got really frustrated at the big plays they were making in the first half,” Rollinson said. “I was afraid of them making another one. You know, with high school kids, their heads can get down and they never get up.”

But the next big St. Paul play never came. That was left to O’Neil & Co.

O’Neil opened the game’s scoring with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Tino Chavez with 7:15 left in the first quarter.

Chavez had another big game, catching eight passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns.