Trabuco Hills Stops Drive, Tops Orange

The end to 60 years of frustration was only a few inches away. However, Orange High School came up short again.

Trabuco Hills survived a furious fourth-quarter drive to hold on for a 13-7 victory in front of 7,200 in Santa Ana Stadium to win its second Southern Section Division VIII championship. But, for a few seconds, it appeared the Panthers were going to end their long drought.

Orange has not won a Southern Section title since 1929.

But with 54 seconds left, Orange had the ball on the Trabuco Hills 13-yard line. On fourth down, quarterback Chris Thompson floated a pass into the end zone to wide receiver Mark Kammerlohr, who had beaten defensive back Rick Sparks.

Kammerlohr appeared to have the ball for a second, before it rolled off his fingertips, giving the Mustangs the ball and the title.

“The play was executed well and I thought Mark was going to catch the ball,” Orange Coach Tom Meiss said. “He made a nice cut, he just needed to be three inches taller.

“I’ll probably think of 150,000 plays between now and if I ever get back into a championship.”

Trabuco Hills (13-1) dusted off a relic to win the game, its defense.

Throughout the playoffs, the Mustangs’ defense has merely filled in while the offense took a breather. But, when it was needed, it came to the forefront.

The Mustangs kept the Panther offense out of the end zone. Orange’s only touchdown came on an interception return.

Trabuco Hills also forced three turnovers.

“We really needed a good defensive game tonight because we couldn’t move the ball,” Quarterback Tim Manning said. “That was the best defensive game we’ve played this year.”

Manning and the Mustangs haven’t needed more than a token effort from the defense throughout the playoffs. In three previous postseason games, Trabuco Hills had outscored its opponents, 118-56.

But Friday, the Panthers tied up the Mustang offense.

Trabuco Hills (13-1) did gain 276 yards but scored only one touchdown. The Mustangs also got a pair of second-half field goals by Brent Roper.

Roper, who has only five field goals on the season, made kicks of 30 and 32 yards.

Orange confused Trabuco Hills with a variety of defenses. They sacked Manning three times and made him throw on the run several times.

Manning completed 14 of 23 passes, but for only 131 yards.

“That was the toughest defense I’ve ever played against,” Manning said. “I’m sore as hell.”

Trabuco Hills was lucky to be tied, 7-7, at halftime.

Leading, 7-0, Orange had the ball on the Trabuco Hills’ 10. But Manning intercepted Chris Thompson’s pass at the one and returned it 15 yards.

It was the 23rd career interception for Manning, which tied him with David Hill of Mission Viejo as Orange County’s all-time leader.

“We got down there and I had to go into a spread offense, because our fullback (Paul Minor) was tired and I took him out the game,” Meiss said. “If we would have scored there and gone up by 14 points, it would have changed the game completely.”

After the interception, Manning drove the Mustangs 84 yards for the tying score. He six of eight passes on the drive, including a nine-yard touchdown pass to Julian Ford with 52 seconds left in the half.

The Mustangs made numerous mistakes through most of half. They turned the ball over twice and had 47 yards in penalties.

It was also Manning’s mistake that gave the Panthers their touchdown. On a second down play from the Mustang 17, Manning tried to hit Ford with a short pass. However, Jeff Peterson stepped in front of Ford for the interception, which he returned 25 yards for a touchdown.