SOUTH COAST LEAGUE : Penalties Hurt Mission Viejo in El Toro Victory

In a game filled with penalties, the most memorable for El Toro might have been the one that was never called.

It was minutes after the final gun when El Toro Coach Mike Milner, at the Chargers’ 30-yard line, grabbed Jeff Stenstrom’s facemask and gave it a yank.

Uh, there were no flags while they hugged, but there was plenty of celebrating after the Chargers’ 14-10 comeback victory over Mission Viejo in a South Coast League game Friday at Trabuco Hills High.

Mission Viejo (3-4, 0-2 in league) was penalized 12 times for 116 yards, had a pass intercepted and a punt blocked.

Stenstrom, younger brother of Stanford quarterback Steve, returned a third-quarter interception 34 yards for a touchdown to pull El Toro to within 10-7. After a blocked punt gave the ball to El Toro (4-2, 2-0) at the Mission Viejo three eight minutes later, Stenstrom recovered teammate Travis Harr’s fumble in the end zone to score what would be the winning touchdown.

That touchdown drive again: three yards.

Stenstrom, playing inside linebacker and fullback, covered more ground than the Trabuco Stadium grass. He said a change in schemes at halftime, which allowed the inside backers to stunt more in the second half, led to the interception.

“This is the greatest feeling ever,” Stenstrom said. “I’ve lost to them the last three years--twice on varsity and once on the freshman team.

“We had to come together. The defense knew we had to score some points.”

It was the third consecutive week the Charger defense has scored.

As for Mission Viejo, Coach Marty Spalding--who once coached El Toro--will be seeing yellow flags in his sleep.

“It seems like that’s the way it is with us these days,” he said. “We must be a real, real, real clearly orchestrated football team to get five times as many penalties as anybody else in the CIF.”

The penalty yardage pretty much negated Diablo running back John Higashi’s 160 yards in 29 carries.

Mission Viejo was flagged for 75 yards in penalties in the first half, but still was in command.

It was 10-0 at the break, and time after time, El Toro was stuffed. Six of the Chargers’ seven first-half possessions ended with punts. The other ended with a fumble.

You choose your poison, though. One El Toro punt was worse than the fumble. A few minutes after Todd Fielding’s 32-yard field goal put the Diablos up, 3-0, Bryan Lefevers delivered a short punt from the Charger 13 and, making matters worse, El Toro was whistled for a late hit on the play.

So Mission Viejo had the ball at the El Toro 20. Two plays later, Higashi bounced off some congestion at the line of scrimmage like a bumper car, veered right and then scooted 25 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown.