Trabuco Hills’ Defense Comes to the Rescue

Tom Lindow threw 12 yards to Billy Ortiz with 2:42 left in the game to give Trabuco Hills a 13-7 victory over Arcadia Friday night at Trabuco Hills High.

Trabuco Hills, which features running back Chris Lewis, the county’s third-leading rusher with 594 yards going into Friday’s game, had trouble early against the Arcadia defense, which held Lewis to 17 yards in the first half.

“They were stepping up to stop the sweep and that’s what we usually run,” Lewis said.

But the Apaches could not contain Lewis in the second half.

Trabuco Hills took the ball at its 21 with 6:47 to play and moved down the field behind Lewis. Two carries resulted in 27 yards, then Lindow completed two passes and ran a keeper to the Arcadia 14. Lewis, who finished the game with 64 yards in 14 carries, carried the ball to the seven, but an offsides penalty pushed it back to the 12.

On the next play, Lindow completed the game-winning pass to Ortiz.

Arcadia moved the ball to Trabuco Hills’ 39, but the Mustang defense made three big plays to preserve the victory. Ortiz tipped a Jordan Elier pass for an incompletion, then Toby Minier-Goeree sacked Elier. Blair Lewis was held to a one-yard gain on a screen pass.

“We had to basically rely on our defense tonight,” Trabuco Hills Coach Bill Crow said. “We stumbled a bit tonight and I thought we were capable of folding, but the kids fought through it.”