Estancia Tops Tustin to Win Title

Estancia High School won a football game Friday and with it claimed something that, four years ago, would have seemed ludicrous to even dream about--a league championship.

The Eagles’ 17-12 victory over Tustin, coupled with Saddleback’s 27-17 loss to Newport Harbor, gave Estancia (9-0, 4-0) the Sea View League championship, the first league title in 10 years for the school.

“Hey man, I’m happy,” said John Liebengood, Estancia coach. “When I got here (four years ago), they told me I had 10 kids on my team, no weight room and no coaches, because they all quit. We got our butts kicked for two years and we went two and 18.

“But in the last two seasons we’ve gone 16-3-1, and it’s because these kids did the work, they ran and pumped weights when all their friends were at the beach. It wasn’t fun for them back then, but this, this is fun.”

Championships rarely come easy, especially for teams that are 0-for-the-decade, and this one was very tough. Tustin (5-4, 2-2), trailing by five points, took possession with four minutes left in the game and drove to the Estancia 38. But it was at that point the Estancia defense stiffened and stopped the drive to clinch the championship.

It was only fitting since Estancia’s defense has been winning games all year. It has shut out five opponents, and allowed four others just 32 points among them.

Estancia’s offense looked as if it would make things easy, scoring 17 points in the first quarter, helped immeasurably by great field possession.

After a short punt, Estancia started its first drive on the Tustin 36. Five plays later, Alex Vasquez kicked a 21-yard field goal.

That soon became 10-0 when, on Tustin’s ensuing possession, Estancia linebacker Dan Petrone intercepted a pass by quarterback Andy Borza and returned the ball 17 yards for a touchdown.

Tustin answered with a drive of its own that resulted in a 10-yard touchdown run by Visko Ancich. The conversion failed.

Late in the first quarter, Estancia found itself on the loser’s one-yard line after blocking a Tustin punt. Quarterback Dan Ucker scored on a sneak.

Estancia’s Jeff Desandro came up with a key play when he raked the ball from Tustin’s Frank Mercuri as he was about to take hold of a second-quarter touchdown pass. Tustin had to settle for a 27-yard David Basurto field goal.