ORANGE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL / PREP EXTRA : DIVISION V : Servite Ends Falcons’ Run With Defense

The dream is over at Santa Ana Valley, or at least deferred. At Servite, it is business as usual.

The Friars, the top-seeded team in Southern Section Division V, had little trouble ending the Falcons’ Cinderella run with a 26-6 victory Friday in front of an estimated 1,300 at Santa Ana Stadium.

Servite (10-2) will meet Corona del Mar, a 28-0 winner over Kennedy, in the semifinals Friday. Santa Ana Valley, Century League co-champion and in the playoffs for the first time since 1978, finishes the season 8-4.

“I’m proud of my kids,” Valley Coach Scott Orloff said. “Nobody thought we’d get this far. We were up against a great machine. They played great defense against us. I can see them going back to the finals.”

Until a final 80-yard drive by Valley’s substitutes against Servite’s subs, resulting in an 18-yard touchdown pass from Roland Ramirez to Jason Parrott, the Friars restricted the Falcons to 85 yards in total offense.

“I thought the difference on defense was our quickness inside,” Servite Coach Larry Toner said. “We kept them to two to three yard gains instead of 10 to 12.”

Servite was just as good offensively. Running back Vince Reed helped control the action, rushing for 108 yards in 19 carries. He scored his team’s final touchdown on a three-yard run with two minutes to play.

The Falcons did not start the game in peak health. Leading rusher B.J. Wallace was slowed by a sore right hamstring, and did not practice much this week. In addition, the flu disrupted the Valley offensive line; one lineman was sent home earlier Friday with a high fever.

But once the game started Santa Ana Valley concerned itself with trying to wreak havoc on the Friars’ offense. Unlike other teams that cringed at the thought of having Servite quarterback Greg Cicero fill the air with passes, the Falcons actually wanted the Friars to try and beat them by throwing.

“We feel there is no wide receiver we cannot run with,” Orloff said. “If they are passing more than throwing, that’s to our strength. We had to stop Reed from running. And we had to play without mistakes.

“That’s my worry; they don’t make mistakes. They execute as well as anyone we’ve seen.”

Unfortunately for Valley, Cicero and the Friars executed the passing game in the first half.

On Servite’s first touchdown drive in the first quarter, covering 72 yards in eight plays, Cicero had two key connections. There was 16-yard completion to Chris Bystedt for a first down at the 38, and two plays later came a 27-yard pass to Brian Brennen that moved the ball to the Valley 19.

Vince Melendez eventually scored from the four.

In the second quarter, Cicero hooked up with Brennen on a 58-yard touchdown pass to increase Servite’s lead to 14-0. Cicero wound up with 131 yards passing in the first half. He completed only one more, for no gain, in the second half.

Santa Ana Valley compounded its difficulty when, near the end of the half, the ball was snapped over Ricky Chavez’s head on a punt and it rolled into the Falcons’ end zone. Chavez kicked the ball out of the end zone to make sure Servite only got a safety instead of another touchdown.