PREP EXTRA: SATURDAY FOOTBALL PULLOUT : Capistrano Valley Falls Short Against Mater Dei

Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson was expecting a tough game from Capistrano Valley. And he got one, sort of.

The 31-3 victory by the second-ranked Monarchs Friday night before about 3,500 doesn’t tell the entire story. Mater Dei (8-0, 3-0) controlled three-quarters of the game, but Capistrano Valley had its moments in the second quarter. However, the Cougars had only three points to show for three drives inside the Mater Dei 35, including one inside the five.

Capistrano Valley (4-4, 1-2) was behind, 14-0, because of two touchdown passes by John Flynn, but the Cougars began to move the ball and get some breaks early in the second quarter. Helped by a 15-yard late-hit penalty on Mater Dei, Capistrano Valley reached the Mater Dei 32 before settling for a 49-yard field-goal attempt by Brett Thompson on fourth and two. Thompson’s kick had the distance, but was wide left. Within three minutes, Capistrano Valley was threatening again. But on fourth and seven at the Mater Dei 26, Thompson missed a 43-yard field goal that was well short.

After Mater Dei failed to move the ball, Capistrano Valley put together its best drive of the night, moving 65 yards in 50 seconds with a short passing game led by quarterback Tim Hirchag. But once the Cougars reached the Mater Dei four, the wheels came off.

Capistrano Valley called a time out but took a delay of game penalty with Hirchag standing on the sidelines with Coach Eric Patton.

“We lost track of how much time there was,” Patton said. “Our quarterback had a little concussion and he kept forgetting the play that was called.”

The Cougars finally got off a draw play that resulted in one yard, and called their last time out with 11 seconds left. Instead of going for the end zone, Patton decided to attempt a 25-yard field goal that was good.

“We had a play called, but when we had to take a time out, we lost our chance of going for a touchdown,” Patton said.

And Capistrano Valley lost any chance it had of upsetting the Monarchs. From there, Mater Dei dominated. The Monarchs’ Kevin Braga intercepted a pass from Hirchag on the third play of the third quarter and took it 26 yards to the Capistrano Valley nine. One play later, Perry caught his second touchdown pass of the game, a seven-yarder from Flynn.

Thompson tried one more long field goal, a 47-yarder with 5:02 remaining in the third quarter, but it was wide right. Mater Dei’s Patrick Shinnefield kicked a 48-yarder to end the third quarter and Monarch fullback Joey Trampush finished the scoring by hitting the end zone on a seven-yard run.