Mater Dei Settles Score With San Clemente

This time, there was no upset.

Mater Dei’s efficient 38-7 South Coast League victory Thursday over San Clemente brought with it closure on one sore subject--San Clemente’s victory last season that stopped a 21-game winning streak--and opened up another: Who’s the best team in the South Coast League?

Top-ranked Mater Dei (9-0, 4-0 in league) finds out next week with the league title on the line when it plays at seventh-ranked Capistrano Valley (6-2, 3-0). At one point this season, both teams were ranked among the nation’s top 10. Mater Dei is currently No. 5.

The Monarchs weren’t guilty of looking ahead. They can thank last year’s 23-17 loss for that.

“I think this game was for the seniors who played last year,” said quarterback Nick Stremick, who completed 10 of 17 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns, and ran three yards for the game’s final score. “Redemption--23-17--that was our motivation.”

Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson acknowledged his team talked about last year’s loss this week in preparation. And he talked about it, too: “I told them that I’m not going back into the locker room if we beat ourselves like we did last year.”

The only evidence of that was on the first series. After driving 46 yards in five plays, Mike McNair fumbled. It was the only turnover. Last year they had five turnovers, that led to 17 points.

McNair made up for it the next time he touched the ball, running 46 yards for a touchdown. He finished with 12 carries for 119 yards.

After San Clemente (4-5, 1-3) came up short--actually wide left on a 40-yard field-goal attempt by Zac Miederhoff--on the following series, Stremick threw over the secondary and Rod Perry ran under the ball for an 80-yard touchdown.

The play of the game?

“Absolutely,” Stremick said. “After that, the momentum totally went our way.”

Even San Clemente’s lone score, Chris Hayward’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lang that cut Mater Dei’s lead to 14-7, couldn’t slow the Monarchs’ roll.

The Monarchs also scored on their next two possessions. Matt Grootegoed kicked a 34-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead, and James Farley scored on an 11-yard touchdown run with 1:19 left in the half. The four scoring drives began at Mater Dei’s 46, 20, 40 and 47.

A third-quarter touchdown drive went only 36 yards, the last 32 on a pass from Stremick to David Castleton.

The defense did its job, too. Hayward spent much of the night hurrying his throws or running for his life. He was sacked five times, twice by Kevin Mitchell, and once each by Seth Fechtman, Ben Tourtelot and McNair.