Capistrano Valley Takes Out Frustration on Dana Hills

The Capistrano Valley and Dana Hills football teams were looking for different things Friday in their South Coast League opener at Capistrano Valley High.

And after the Cougars won, 33-9, both gained a measure of satisfaction.

For Capistrano Valley, which expects to contend for the league title this season, nothing short of a victory would suffice. They secured it early, taking a 31-3 halftime lead.

The Cougars were hoping that by overwhelming the Dolphins, they could ease the sting of two consecutive losses in their past two games against Atascadero and Bakersfield, ranked No. 4 in the state.

“We really needed [the victory]. We didn’t perform well [in the last two games]. Well, the thing is, we played good teams,” said Capistrano Valley Coach Dave Brown. “We needed to come back and establish ourselves. We needed to get our confidence back.”

Capistrano Valley, ranked No. 8 in the county, improved to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in league.

Dana Hills (3-3, 0-1) took encouragement from its ability to limit Capistrano Valley to just two points after halftime.

“We played well in the second half,” said Dana Hills Coach Scott Orloff, noting that the Dolphins dug a deep hole in the first half with four turnovers.

Dana Hills was in trouble from its first possession, when it advanced only eight yards after Julio Peraza returned the opening kick-off six yards.

Capistrano Valley took over on downs at the Dana Hills 25 after the Dolphins could not convert a fourth-and-one play. Malaefou MacKenzie then made runs of three and six yards before scoring on a 16-yard run.

Cougar David Elecciri recovered a fumble on the Dolphins’ ensuing possession at the Dana Hills 16-yard line and four plays later, Charlie Landrigan scored on a two-yard run to make it 14-0 only 6 minutes 25 seconds into the game.

The Dolphins got a break after losing their second fumble of the quarter when Cougar kicker Matt Donoho’s 27-yard field-goal attempt hit the crossbar.

But on the Dolphins’ next possession, Curt Rodriguez intercepted a pass from quarterback Aaron Kaufman and returned it 17 yards to the Dolphin 28-yard line. Donoho didn’t miss this time, kicking a 24-yard field goal to make it 17-0 with 6:47 remaining in the half.

Capistrano Valley scored two more touchdowns before Matt Deter kicked a 46-yard field goal at the end of the half to give Dana Hills its only points in the first half.