Fountain Valley Sticks It to Servite : Football: Barons’ Bertoni sacked six times. But he throws for 218 yards in 17-14 victory, the Friars’ first loss of season.

Servite’s blitzing defense kept knocking down Fountain Valley quarterback Scott Bertoni Friday night. Unfortunately for the Friars, he kept getting up.

“He’s a tough nut,” Fountain Valley Coach George Berg said. “They put him on his back and he had to get up and rally.”

Bertoni did just that more often than not and that proved crucial in the Barons’ 17-14 Sunset League victory over Servite in front of a homecoming crowd of 3,000 at Huntington Beach High.

It was the first loss of the season for fourth-ranked Servite (7-1-1, 5-1 in league). The Friars can still win its first league title since it won the Angelus League title in 1984 by beating Santa Ana in the regular-season finale next week.

Fountain Valley (5-3-1, 4-1-1) revived itself by moving into a second-place tie with Marina. The Barons finish the season against Westminster.

Bertoni was sacked six times, including three by Servite strong safety A.J. Gass, but he was still able to complete 15 of 24 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown.

But simple statistics don’t do justice to Bertoni’s performance.

Despite the harassing presence of Gass and Co., Bertoni made many clutch completions on long-yardage situations.

The touchdown pass--a 13-yarder to Mark Ziemke--came on third and 10 and gave the Barons the 17-7 lead midway through the third quarter.

Then after Servite had narrowed the Barons’ lead to three points with 8 minutes 44 seconds left in the game, Bertoni put together a 14-play drive that took more than six minutes off the clock, giving Servite little time with which to work.

On the drive, Bertoni completed a 24-yard pass to Bryan Gail that moved the ball out from the Barons’ four-yard line. Then after being sacked by Gass for a nine-yard loss, Bertoni completed a 35-yarder to Gail on third and 19.

Bertoni was on his back when Gail made the catch because Gass hit him after he let go of the pass.

“Gass is an animal,” Bertoni said. “The guy’s crazy.”

That final completion to Gail, which gave Gail seven receptions for 133 yards, took another minute off the clock and Servite wasn’t able to get anything going when the Friars got the ball with 2:18 left.

“I told the kids they had to play a perfect game to win,” Berg said. “There were some things that weren’t perfect, but they kept striving for the goal and never let down.”

Without Elphamous Malbrue, Servite’s leading rusher who missed the game with a shoulder injury, the Friars were largely ineffective on offense. Steve Correa stepped in and gained 94 yards in 13 carries but Servite lacked a breakaway threat.

Fountain Valley’s defense held quarterback Eric Hannah, who threw for 250 yards last week in a 36-17 victory over Huntington Beach, to seven of 14 completions for 64 yards.