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El Toro Didn’t Count on Santa Margarita’s Palmer

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Talk about your misdirection plays. While El Toro’s defense had to worry about containing the county’s third-leading rusher in its bid to win a league title, Santa Margarita unveiled another weapon in the backfield.

Quarterback Carson Palmer, who was averaging 17 yards rushing per game, did his best Billy Newman impression, rushing for 150 yards to lead sixth-ranked Santa Margarita to a 42-21 Sea View victory over El Toro Friday at Trabuco Hills High.

Palmer also passed for four touchdowns as Santa Margarita (8-1, 4-0 in league) clinched a share of the league title; the Eagles play Corona del Mar on Thursday. El Toro (5-4, 2-2) will play Irvine next Saturday with the league’s third automatic playoff berth on the line.

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Santa Margarita is ranked third in the Southern Section Division V rankings, El Toro sixth.

While El Toro’s defense was looking for Newman, who rushed 24 times for 120 yards to increase his season total to 1,503, Palmer was having a field day.

The quarterback sneak was a sneaky weapon and the quarterback draw was plainly devastating. Palmer rushed 16 times for 150 yards, and 10 of those carries were for first downs.

“That was unexpected,” El Toro Coach Mike Milner said. “We knew we had to be leery of him. . . .”

But 150 yards? Palmer’s rushing wasn’t in the original game plan.

“We noticed they came out in one- and two-backer sets,” Palmer said. “My offensive linemen were making big blocks and I ran right up the field.

“We didn’t expect to run the quarterback draw that much, but that’s what they gave us and that’s what we took.”

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Palmer completed 13 of 21 passes for 220 yards and four touchdowns. Two touchdowns were to Billy O’Connor and covered 36 and 56 yards. O’Connor, who had six catches for 34 yards this season, had four for 111 against the Chargers.

“That was the game of his life,” Palmer said.

O’Connor’s first touchdown gave Santa Margarita a 21-7 lead after the Chargers had cut in half a 14-point deficit.

O’Connor’s second touchdown, the 56-yarder, came on the series after El Toro’s game-tying touchdown, a 58-yard scoring pass from Mike Strand to Michael Smith, which tied the score at 21 midway through the third quarter.

Brett Crowder and John Minardi also caught touchdown passes, and Newman ran for his 11th touchdown of the season.

O’Connor’s long touchdown gave Santa Margarita a 28-21 lead, which seemed to sap El Toro’s defense completely. The Eagles added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to ice the game.

Santa Margarita’s defense also did a nice job of containing El Toro’s multipurpose back Murle Sango. Sango, who had a 54-yard touchdown reception nullified by a penalty on the first series, caught six passes for 63 yards and one touchdown and rushed five times for four yards and another touchdown.

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