Harr Goes on Offensive for El Toro

MISSION VIEJO — When El Toro’s Travis Harr lined up in his starting tailback spot against Santa Ana Friday night, the biggest thing on his mind was not fumbling.

Which is understandable when you consider that Harr, a junior, had never played offense in high school. The last time he carried the ball was when he played fullback. He was 8 years old.

Harr, who is more accustomed to looking for the guy with the ball as a starting defensive back, did just fine carrying it. He ran 12 times for 118 yards, including an 85-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. El Toro went on to defeat Santa Ana, 21-7, at Trabuco Hills High School.

“My biggest concern was fumbling,” said Harr. “I practiced before the game by taking handoffs.” Harr was switched to tailback because of an injury to regular starter, Jeff Brizic.

“Travis had not played tailback until this Monday,” El Toro Coach Mike Milner said. “He did an outstanding job. We wanted to start him off and see what he could do.”

It didn’t take long to find out. After rushing for two yards and getting thrown for a five-yard loss on his first two carries, Harr bolted for an 85-yard scoring run on his third carry of the game to give El Toro a 13-7 lead.

Harr’s run came two plays after Santa Ana’s Jose Aguilar had run 59 yards to tie the game.

El Toro (1-1) took the lead on the first drive of the game. Bryan Lefevers hit Sean Burke for a 28-yard scoring pass. Lefevers, who was 10 of 21 for 158 yards, finished the night’s scoring when he threw 19 yards to Joshua Inders on fourth and 10 with 5:26 left in the half. Lefevers passed to Matt Harding for the two-point conversion.

That was all El Toro needed as its defense shut down Santa Ana (0-2), which had 118 yards rushing.

Watching the defense made Harr long a little for his old spot.

“I would have liked to get in there for a couple plays,” Harr said. “But I’ll take what I can get.”