Aliso Niguel Stuns No. 4 El Toro, 27-25

Unranked and undaunted, Aliso Niguel took it to fourth-ranked El Toro for a half and then held off a late Charger rally for a 27-25 victory Friday night at Aliso Niguel High in front of about 5,000 spectators.

El Toro’s late charge, led by all-purpose back Murle Sango, who had four touchdowns, ended when kicker Chad Johnson’s 45-yard field-goal attempt was blocked with 40 seconds left. Earlier, Johnson had missed two extra points.

There was plenty of celebrating after Aliso Niguel’s fourth consecutive victory, but no one seemed too surprised.

“We might have been thought of as the underdog, but we came in feeling we could win,” running back Scott Nemeth said. “We’re not coached to be second best, so we always feel we can win.”

Even so, Aliso Niguel Coach Joe Wood called Friday night’s victory the biggest in the program’s four-year history.

“I’m really happy for our football team right now,” he said.

Wood was the happiest with his defensive line, which looked like it was about to give up the winning touchdown in last minute but came up with two big sacks. El Toro (3-1) got the ball with 1 minute 50 seconds left on its 42 and reached the Aliso Niguel 19 after two Brandon Wilde passes--a seven-yarder to Darren Ohlwiler and a 32-yarder down the sideline to Michael Smith.

But Wilde was sacked on two of the next three plays by tackle Ryan Valdez and the Chargers had to settle for a long field-goal attempt.

El Toro Coach Mike Milner had no explanation for Johnson’s kicking problems. Last week, Johnson missed three extra points.

“Last week it was the protection but this week he was kicking them off defensive lineman’s heads,” he said.

Aliso Niguel took a 21-7 lead in the first 13 minutes. The Wolverines scored on their first offensive play, an 80-yard halfback option from Nemeth, a former quarterback, to Andrew Mashburn and dominated the rest of the half. Nemeth ran for 98 of his 130 yards and quarterback Wes Thomas threw for 115 of his 149 yards.

Sango almost rescued El Toro. He scored on a run of 74 yards and caught touchdown passes of nine, 21 and 31. The final two came in the last nine minutes of the game. El Toro could have tied it at 27 with 4:50 left but a two-point conversion failed when Wilde was tackled at the one after catching a pass from Sango.