Problems on the Field Come Early and Often for Servite’s Toner

Servite Coach Larry Toner, a man who speaks four languages and studied in a Catholic seminary for 11 years, is an intellectual who loves a good chess match and preaches concentration and poise.

He had a difficult time watching his second-ranked Friars make repeated mistakes in a 41-7 loss to top-ranked Mater Dei at Cal State Fullerton on Friday night.

“Penalties and mistakes, that’s all it was,” a tight-lipped Toner said. “We need to work on execution.”

Just how bad? Try 50 yards in penalties, two interceptions, including one that Mater Dei linebacker Ryan Neely returned for a touchdown, a bad snap on a punt that sailed into the Friar end zone and the loss of two-way standout Vince Reed, who injured a shoulder tackling Mater Dei two-way standout David Castleton on the final play of the quarter.

Mater Dei 14, Servite 0.

Servite’s initial first down of the game, not counting penalties, came with a little less than nine minutes left in the second quarter, but the drive stalled.

Five minutes later, after Servite forced them to punt, a clipping penalty nullified a 41-yard punt return by Nick Rodriguez that would have put the ball back on the Monarchs’ 19-yard line.

Quarterback Greg Cicero, hit almost every time he released the ball, threw his third interception.

The next Friar drive stalled in Monarch territory when a Servite lineman was called for being too far down the field on a screen play.

And if that wasn’t enough, the Friars were penalized 15 yards for an ineligible participation penalty with 24 seconds left to play, a mistake that led to another Monarch touchdown.

“We saw this game coming a long time ago,” Monarch Coach Bruce Rollinson said. “We prepared a package of blitzes. We almost brought them up against Irvine last week, but we were saving them for tonight. They saw some different looks we hadn’t shown before.”

By the time Mater Dei had increased its lead to 27-7 with 3 minutes 39 seconds left in the third quarter on a drive aided by a Servite offside penalty, Toner had had enough.

“I was no more thinking that they were going to do this to us,” Toner said. “We anticipated their coverage.”

He ripped off his headset and chewed out the player who was offside. Then he challenged 6-foot-8 defensive end Kurt Vollers in loud terms.

But it was far too late. Mater Dei scored again late in the third quarter. Toner could only grin and bear it.

“We didn’t expect them to make the errors that they did,” Monarch running back James Farley said.