Santa Ana Valley Win Isn’t Pretty

Santa Ana Valley High School’s 14-9 victory over Kennedy Thursday night at Western High was a sorry-looking mess no matter how you looked at it.

Dan Castanon, Santa Ana Valley coach, looked down on it in more ways than one. Perched in the scaffold tower usually reserved for assistant coaches, Castanon saw all the Falcons’ bumbles and fumbles he might have missed standing on the field.

“It was probably the worst victory I’ve ever had in the 15 years I’ve been coaching,” he said. “I’m so upset right now.”

Mitch Olson, Kennedy coach, opted for the traditional pacing of the sidelines, but what he saw was no less pleasing.

“We’re young,” Olson said. “We do a lot of stupid things.”

Both teams made traditional mistakes--too many men on the field, not enough men on the field, holding, clipping, etc., etc.

But they managed to come up with a few new wrinkles, as when Kennedy’s Morgan Murakami forgot to pounce on a lateral. Tyrone Barnes of Santa Ana Valley smothered the ball at the Kennedy 46-yard line, snuffing the Fighting Irish’s final drive with 1 minute 25 seconds left.

To be fair, though, Murakami helped Kennedy almost pull out a victory. He caught five passes for 46 yards, including a six-yard touchdown pass from Rod Rosales, which cut Santa Ana Valley’s 14-2 lead to 14-9.

And just because the game was sloppy didn’t mean it wasn’t exciting. In fact, it may have been exciting because it was sloppy.

At one point, James Barclay, Santa Ana Valley running back, had scored 14 of the game’s 16 points. And that wasn’t a good thing.

Barclay scored on touchdown runs of two and five yards for the Falcons (1-0-1). But he also got tackled in the end zone with 3:45 left in the third quarter for a safety, giving Kennedy (1-1) its only points until Murakami’s touchdown reception with 4:51 left in the game.

Barclay, who gained 63 yards in 19 carries, also had a seven-yard touchdown run called back in the first quarter.

Trailing, 14-9, with 2:40 left, Kennedy had one last chance to win. The Irish drove to the Santa Ana Valley 42, but on first down reserve quarterback John Guthrie threw incomplete. He fumbled on second down and after the Irish recovered, the play lost 12 yards. A third-down lateral to Murakami seemed promising, but he dropped the ball then hesitated just long enough for Barnes to recover.

“We were not good enough tonight,” Castanon said. “We were good enough to win, but not good enough to win a Century League game.”