Esperanza Beats El Dorado, but Not Convincingly

He looked at the final numbers on the scoreboard Friday night, but Esperanza High School Coach Gary Meek knew they don’t always tell the whole story.

“We’ll take 26 points anytime,” Meek said.

Meek left out was the “but . . . “ But you could tell he was thinking it.

Esperanza scored enough to beat visiting El Dorado, 26-10, in an Empire League game at Valencia High. But the game matching the top-ranked team in Southern Section Division III against the league’s cellar-dwellers was closer than the scoreboard suggested. Consider:

--Esperanza (8-0, 3-0 in league), the county’s fourth-ranked team, outgained its crosstown rival by a mere 15 yards (290 to 275).

--El Dorado (1-7, 0-3), which hasn’t won since the season opener, had to settle for one successful field goal and three missed ones at the end of four solid drives.

El Dorado scored its only touchdown on a seven-yard pass from Jason Bluth to tight end Mike Roth. Bluth passed for a season-high 163 yards.

Esperanza scored on its first play, a 10-yard run by Garrick Emry after Jason Perez’s interception on El Dorado’s first possession.

The Aztecs stretched the lead to 13-3 in the first quarter on a 32-yard pass from Keith McDonald to Reid Pullen, who holds Esperanza’s record for career touchdown catches.