ORANGE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: PREP EXTRA : SEA VIEW LEAGUE : El Toro Beats Woodbridge to Clinch Title

It was easy to find El Toro Coach Mike Milner after his team clinched the Sea View League title with a 35-7 victory over Woodbridge Friday at Irvine High.

Milner was the one in the jacket trying to cover his soaked shirt. His pants also were drenched.

It seems that a few fun-loving Chargers (8-2, 4-1 in league) decided to dump the now-cliched bucket of ice water on the coach in celebration of their first league title since 1986.

But the players couldn’t wait until the game was over.

Instead, they struck with almost two minutes left and Milner could only stand and grimace as Woodbridge made that time agonizingly long by throwing seven passes before the game finally ended.

“I think my left foot’s just about froze off,” Milner said. “[The league title] was our goal from the start of the season. It’s nice to accomplish a long-term goal.”

El Toro’s offense wasn’t very sharp much of the time, but the Chargers scored four of their five touchdowns from at least 20 yards away.

Richard Oates scored on runs of 31, 1 and 20 yards and had a game-high 90 yards rushing in nine carries. His final carry was for a 20-yard touchdown to give El Toro a 28-0 lead with 5 minutes 44 seconds left in the third quarter.

El Toro’s normally strong passing game was just that early on but then vanished. Steve Krupp completed four of his first five passes for 89 yards, including a screen that Murle Sango took 31 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 6:49 left in the half.

But Krupp, the second-rated passer in Orange County, completed only three more passes the rest of the game.

He finished seven of 27 for 120 yards and one interception. His lone second-half completion was impressive, however. He hit Sango in full stride up the middle for a 27-yard touchdown with 10:55 to play in the game.

Sango, who had 55 yards rushing and 71 receiving, and many other El Toro starters didn’t play after that.

Woodbridge’s touchdown--Ricky Jenkins’ five-yard run--came against reserves with 4:49 to play.

El Toro’s starting defense was dominant over three quarters. That unit limited Woodbridge to 17 yards passing and minus-six yards rushing. Matt Steinau had one sack and shared another, and Grady Fike had two interceptions for El Toro.

Woodbridge ends 0-9-1, 0-5.