ORANGE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL / PREP EXTRA : Mater Dei Takes Its Time, Then Takes Care of Dana Hills

It’s not like this wasn’t expected. Not with second-ranked Mater Dei opening the defense of its South Coast League title against Dana Hills, which three weeks ago broke a 19-game losing streak.

The final score was 49-0, but give the Dolphins some credit; Mater Dei didn’t get on the board until the final two minutes of the first quarter.

But once the Monarchs scored, they scored often.

“I really like the progress of our offense,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said. “They’re scoring points. Our offensive line came off the ball well.”

So well that the Monarchs (6-0, 1-0 in league) outgained Dana Hills (1-5, 0-1) in the first half, 265-88, and led, 28-0, on the strength of two touchdown runs by James Farley--of 56 and nine yards--late in the first quarter.

The Monarchs added two second-quarter touchdown passes by Nick Stremick, who completed seven of 11 passes for 114 yards, to make it 28-0 at halftime.

Stremick’s scoring passes covered eight yards to Rod Fraser and 50 yards to David Castleton. The latter came in the final minute of the half.

Fraser caught five passes for 71 yards, but was overshadowed by Farley, a junior running back who carried the ball 14 times for 145 yards and was the only Monarch to score twice.

Realistically, Mater Dei had little to gain except its 20th consecutive victory.

“We didn’t get anyone hurt,” said Rollinson, breathing a sigh of relief, “and I’m pleased that all the kids got to play.”

Those in the crowd of 3,500 at Santa Ana Stadium who remained for the second half saw Castleton’s 50-yard scramble set up Mike McNair’s eight-yard touchdown run; Ryan Souza bust up the middle for a 20-yard score; and Derek Berger recover a blocked punt (by Jeff Felix and Rick Hewitson ) in the end zone.

They also saw three different players kick extra points--Mike Fischbeck, who kicked the first five, Greg Madrid and sophomore Greg Bechtold.

“I was real disappointed we couldn’t get our trap game going for [Troy Ifuku and Jon Trottier],” Dolphins Coach Trace Deneke said. “We thought we could get some work done inside on them, but Reed Diehl and Brad Williams just shut us down.

“But I couldn’t be prouder. The kids have grown 10-fold over last year in their ability to play at other people’s level.”

The Dolphins’ Morgan completed 21 of 35 passes for 115 yards with one interception--by Anthony Avila--which set up Farley’s nine-yard touchdown run.

Mater Dei finished with a 420-179 advantage in total yardage.

* NEW LEAGUE FOR MATER DEI?

School requests move from South Coast League to a Catholic league in 1998. C14