Santa Ana’s Recovery Is Still Rolling Along

The offensive struggles and the defensive breakdowns that characterized Santa Ana’s first three games now seem like a lifetime ago to Coach Dave Ogas and his players.

The Dons played well for the third game in row, this time at the expense of host Saddleback, which has won the last two Mission Conference Central Division titles.

Santa Ana took advantage of six turnovers, scoring off of five, in rolling over the Gauchos, 52-28. It was only the fourth time in 17 meetings that the Dons have defeated Saddleback.

“I’m really happy for my coaches,” Ogas said. “We’ve been on this field too many times and got our butts kicked. It’s an old coaching cliche, but we had a really good week of practice.”

It was the second loss in a row for Saddleback (3-3, 1-1), which was 11-0 last season.

Strong safety Kody Miller had a fumble recovery, caused a fumble and also had an interception for first-place Santa Ana (3-3, 3-0), which limited Saddleback to 18 yards rushing.

“I really thought this was going to be a better game than this,” Miller said. “The main thing is that we hustled around and caused fumbles and put pressure on them.”

Santa Ana’s defense was at its best in the third quarter, when Saddleback’s four possessions resulted in a punt, two interceptions and a fumble.

Santa Ana led, 21-14, at the half, but put the game away by scoring the next 24 points.

A fumbled center exchange led to a 44-yard field goal into the wind by Santa Ana’s Anousith Wilaikul with 12 minutes left in the quarter.

The lead grew to 31-14 when Tramel Robinson scored from one yard about six minutes later.

Saddleback’s defense stopped Santa Ana at the Gaucho 35 late in the quarter, but Don punter Joey Meza took the long snap and went around an undefended left end and cut to the middle for a 35-yard touchdown run and a 38-14 lead with 1 minute 25 seconds left in the half.

Any remote chance Saddleback had was lost on a punt early in the fourth quarter. Meza’s punt hit off the pads of Saddleback’s Eddie Kealoha and bounced into the hands of Santa Ana’s Ameche Sanders at the Saddleback 10.

Bryon Schley went 10 yards up the middle on the next play and Santa Ana led, 45-14, with 10:28 to play.

Santa Ana quarterback Archie Lappin had another strong game, completing 14 of 16 for 123 yards and a touchdown.