SOUTH COAST LEAGUE : New Model Mater Dei Keeps Winning

Mater Dei worked at exorcising a ghost during a 17-0 victory over Mission Viejo Thursday night. With it, the Monarchs hope to bury the past, no matter how fond their memories of it are.

Seven weeks into the season, last year’s Southern Section Division I football championship still shadows them. It has been like living up to an older brother’s reputation.

“We don’t even talk about last year,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said. “We don’t want any pressure from that.”

By winning Thursday at Cal State Fullerton, the Monarchs remained unbeaten and continued to set the pace in the South Coast League.

Still, it’s hard to avoided comparisions to 1991. And quarterback Derrek Uhl has heard them all.

It’s Uhl who had the chore of replacing Billy Blanton, who set Orange County single-season records for passing yardage and touchdowns. No one was expecting Uhl to duplicate those numbers, but the pressure has been there all the same.

He has been erratic this season, which is a reason the Monarch offense has been idle much of the time. Even Rollinson has expressed exasperation over the passing attack.

“I felt like I had to do a lot,” Uhl said. “I thought about that quite a bit earlier this season.”

Uhl has stopped thinking and started producing.

He completed 12 of 20 passes for 126 yards against the Diablos. Not the type numbers that make defensive backs quake in their cleats, but he did put the Monarchs in the end zone twice.

In the first quarter, Uhl was blitzed and battered but still managed to flip a eight-yard touchdown pass to Robert Molina. He also threw a one-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Ford in the third quarter.

“The last couple weeks, I’ve decide just to go out and be me,” said Uhl, a junior. “I have another year left, I can show what I can do.”

His performance took the pressure off the running game, which had carried the team. Good thing too, as the Diablos shut down the run, limiting the Monarchs 107 yards.

“If I don’t have a heart attack with this team, I’m never going to have one,” Rollinson said.

“I told our offense it was up to them. We need them to produce to be a championship caliber team. We already have a championship-caliber defense.”

That was demonstrated over and over again against the Diablos (3-4, 1-1). The Monarchs, who have given up only 48 points, limited the Diablos to 132 yards, only 71 rushing.

In fact, their biggest play was a 25-yard pass from Brad Weekes to Bill Pedigo to the Monarch three with three seconds left as the Diablos tried to save some face with a late touchdown. On the following play, Weekes pass fell in complete, and the Monarchs had their third shutout.

Weekes was four for 16 for 60 yards and an interception. He was also stripped of the ball by defensive tackle Edgar Macias, who recovered at the Mission 14 to set up the Monarchs’ second touchdown.

“If everybody does their job, no one can score on us,” Macias said. “The defense can do it.”