Laguna Hills Gets Second Chance, but El Toro Comes Out on Top

The clock struck 0:00. The game wasn’t over yet.

No, before El Toro tucked away a 19-14 victory over Laguna Hills at Mission Viejo High on Friday night, the Chargers first had to withstand a frantic Hawk rally, a rally that brought the Hawks to the El Toro 28 with three seconds to play.

Laguna Hills quarterback Justin Vedder, who had El Toro defensive backs wide-eyed all night while he threw for 382 yards, dropped back, fired a pass to Marcus Elliott, and watched as El Toro’s James Lee threw Elliott to the ground while the ball was still in the air.

Given a reprieve with no time left, as well as 15 yards to the El Toro 13 on the pass-interference penalty, Vedder tried again.

This time, he threw Rick Stilson’s way, toward the right sideline, but it was just out of reach. The ball bounced off of the outstretched hands of the diving Stilson in the end zone and, this time, there was no penalty.

Game over.

“I was pretty nervous at the end,” said El Toro defensive back Keith Yarmchuk, who scored the Chargers’ first touchdown on a 45-yard interception return. “I thought it was going to be a heartbreaker for us, but it turned out.”

When the key phrase resonating up and down the bench is “C’mon, tackle the ball!”, you know the night has somehow slipped out of your grasp.

When that’s the phrase of the game by early in the fourth quarter, you figure that maybe the post-game sock hop is going to be a bummer. But that was the case for Laguna Hills (3-1), which had players calling for the defense to get the ball back less than a minute into the fourth quarter.

The problem was a quick one-two punch by El Toro--playing without regular quarterback Bryan Lefevers, who was injured in last week’s Woodridge loss--late in the third quarter.

With the score tied at 7-7, El Toro (2-2) drove 80 yards in 2 1/2 minutes, taking a 13-7 lead when Travis Harr carried five yards up the middle.

The Chargers blew the conversion kick but, before they even had time to pout, Laguna Hills’ Fred Kim fumbled and El Toro’s Jeff Stenstrom pounced on the ball at the Hawk 27.

One play later, backup quarterback Brian Wilson, playing in his first varsity game, stepped back and threw a perfect 27-yard touchdown pass to Dieter Segura.

This time, El Toro blew the conversion pass.

Vedder, who completed 25 of 48 passes, found Stilson open for a 50-yard touchdown pass play with 2:32 to play to make the score 19-14.

Laguna Hills held El Toro on four downs on the next possession and got the ball back with 1:13 to play but, on this night, it wasn’t going to happen.