Trabuco Hills Starts with Sparks, Routs Laguna Hills

About an hour before sunset Saturday, Trabuco Hills High School’s Rick Sparks turned out the lights on Laguna Hills.

Sparks returned a punt 62 yards after the first offensive series of the game, and it turned out to be all Trabuco Hills would need in a 41-3 victory at Mission Viejo High.

It didn’t get any better for Laguna Hills after sundown in a game that began as a battle of teams that were undefeated in Pacific Coast League play.

The Hawks never drove deeper than the Mustang 18-yard line, and Trabuco Hills’ usually pass-happy offense showed that it can pound out yardage on the ground.

Quarterback Tim Manning passed for only 28 yards, but he ran for 95. In the second quarter, Manning scrambled out of the pocket and ran 47 yards for a touchdown. He added a 22-yard touchdown run on a keeper in the third quarter.

Ben Rooker, Trabuco Hills’ 6-foot-3, 215-pound tailback, gained 117 yards in 15 carries in his first full game since having arthroscopic knee surgery. His one-yard burst off left tackle gave Trabuco Hills a 14-0 lead.

Running back Peter Burke added 59 yards in seven carries.

After Trabuco Hills took a 28-3 lead in the third quarter, the reserves got to have some fun.

Julian Ford, normally a tight end, got two carries down near the goal line and punched his way into the end zone from three yards out. In the fourth quarter, reserve tailback Mitsu Nakamura took a pitch five yards around left tackle for the Mustangs’ final score.

Trabuco Hills improved to 7-1 overall and 3-0 in league, moving into a first-place tie with Orange in the PCL.

In an attempt to handle Manning and Trabuco Hills’ passing attack, Laguna Hills (4-4, 2-1) blitzed often and sometimes used five and six defensive backs. Manning was sacked twice and intercepted once, but Rooker was able to get loose and wreak havoc in Laguna Hills’ secondary.

“They might have gambled that we wouldn’t be able to run the ball as well as we did,” Trabuco Hills Coach Jim Barnett said. “They took a lot of our passing game away, but we controlled both lines of scrimmage.”