Santa Margarita Wins War With Tustin

All week long there was talk about what a blowout the Southern Section Division V football championship game was going to be.

At Santa Margarita, Coach Jim Hartigan believed his team had just too many weapons for its opponent, Tustin, to handle.

Tustin from Coach Myron Miller just hoped to keep the game close.

As it turned out, both sides were right.

Santa Margarita won its second consecutive title with a 55-42 victory in front of 7,500 at Cal State Fullerton.

But the game was even closer than the wild score indicated thanks to a gutty effort by the Tillers, who made the Eagles work for every bit of their 25th consecutive victory.

The teams combined to gain 1,062 total yards, thanks in part to a Santa Margarita school-record 588 yards. Santa Margarita scored on all but one of its nine possessions.

Senior quarterback Carson Palmer of Santa Margarita passed for 413 yards and five touchdowns, including a 46-yarder to John Minardi that brought the Eagles back from a 20-14 deficit. He ran for another score. When Nick Sparks kicked the extra point, the Eagles led for good, 21-20.

They needed just about every point they could get because Tustin’s offensive line was ripping big holes for running back DeShaun Foster. Foster, a senior, ran for six touchdowns and 378 yards on 32 carries, bringing his season-ending total to 3,398 yards. He scored on runs of 25, 25, 31, 10, 14 and one yards.

Palmer was equally brilliant. He completed 19 of 30 passes and had touchdown tosses of 25, 42, 46, 11 and 25 yards. Orlando caught five passes for 115 yards, John Minardi caught six for 124 and Mike O’Gorman caught five for 127.

“They just outmanned us,” Tustin’s Miller said. “I’m very happy to be in the finals with this team. I’m not depressed at all.”

Hartigan, who earlier in the week indicated that he felt his team was more diverse than any Tustin had faced this season, complimented the Tillers, many of whom were pushed to exhaustion during the second half.

“Tustin is a great team,” he said. “But this is a great feeling. Palmer had a phenomenal game.

“But that Foster was phenomenal, too,” he said. “He got knocked down, banged up and he kept getting up and coming back at us.”

Tustin took the early lead and raised a few eyebrows by taking the opening kickoff and marching 80 yards, with Foster getting all but 11 yards of the drive, including his 25-yard touchdown run.

The teams alternated scores after that, with Palmer throwing touchdown passes to O’Gorman and Minardi, while Tustin countered with another 25-yard score from Foster.

Foster’s third score made it 20-14. But that’s when Palmer went to work, engineering a seven-play, 70-yard drive capped by the touchdown to Minardi. Later a Bryant Wolfsberger 1-yard run and 42- and 22-yard field goals by Nick Sparks gave the Eagles a 34-20 lead.

Santa Margarita was determined to keep Foster in check in the second half, but that was nearly impossible.

“He’s the best back I ever faced,” said Minardi, also a defensive back, who was voted the Sea View League most valuable defensive player. “It was a real challenge.”

A one-yard run by Wolfsberger gave Santa Margarita a 28-20 lead and Sparks’ 42-yard field goal as time ran out in the half made it 31-20.

But Foster made it 34-26 on his fourth touchdown, a 10-yard run with 2:51 left in the third quarter.

An 11-yard pass to Minardi for a touchdown a minute and a half later and then Palmer’s one-yard plunge with 6:46 left in the game made it 48-26.

Despite being hobbled by cramps, Foster set up his 14-yard TD run with a 39-yard carry on Tustin’s next possession. Palmer countered with a 25-yard touchdown toss to O’Gorman and then Foster had a 47-yard run that set up his one-yard scoring run two plays later.