GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE : Rancho Alamitos’ Trammell Runs for 244 Yards, Four Touchdowns

It was a night for pageantry at the Rancho Alamitos High School homecoming game Friday, so Vaquero tailback Ulysses Trammell decided to put on a show of his own.

Trammell rushed for 244 yards in 20 carries and scored four touchdowns to lead Rancho Alamitos over Kennedy, 34-12, in front of about 1,500 at Bolsa Grande High School.

“Ulysses Trammell saved our bacon,” Rancho Alamitos Coach Mark Miller said.

That he did.

The senior scored on a 60-yard run the first time he touched the ball and later on runs of 52, one and 24 yards, breaking would-be tacklers numerous times. He had 95 yards in six carries in the first half.

In fact, Rancho Alamitos (5-0 overall, 2-0 in league) could not come up with much of an offensive output in the first half and held a 7-6 margin at intermission.

The Vaqueros were stunned on Kennedy’s first possession of the game when quarterback John Guthrie connected with wide receiver Rod Rosales on a 51-yard pass play to give the Fighting Irish the early lead with 8 minutes 34 seconds left in the first period.

Rancho didn’t help its cause by being penalized for 80 yards in the half.

But Trammell took control in the second half to bail out the Vaqueros.

He set up his second touchdown with a 26-yard run midway through the third period and then ran the ball four times in a six-play drive a couple of minutes later.

Kennedy (2-3, 0-2) could not capitalize on Rancho’s penalties and had to settle for only one more touchdown, on a five-yard pass from Guthrie to tailback Vince Church with 5:31 remaining in the third quarter.

The Vaqueros wrapped up their scoring with a five-yard run by Leon Vickers early in the final quarter.

Rancho held Church to 60 yards in 14 carries. Guthrie completed seven of 16 passes for 110 yards.

The victory almost proved costly for the Vaqueros, however. Senior fullback/tackle Vince Otteman suffered what originally was believed to be possible torn ligaments in a knee on his first carry of the game, but Vicki McAdams, a physician’s assistant at Kaiser Permanente in Anaheim, said the injury was diagnosed as a knee strain.