Lappin Helps Santa Ana to Victory

Santa Ana found an old friend in quarterback Archie Lappin, who led the Dons to a 38-7 victory over Fullerton in the Mission Conference Central Division opener for both teams Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.

Lappin completed 67% of his passes last season as the Dons won the division. But the first half of this season has been a struggle. He had completed only 46% of his passes and the Dons were winless.

But all that changed as Lappin completed 19 of 27 for 267 yards and two touchdowns. His previous seaon-high had been 178 against El Camino.

He also pulled off a perfect bootleg and went one yard for a touchdown to give Santa Ana a 32-0 lead with 7 minutes 6 seconds left in the third quarter. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter.

“It looked a lot like last year,” Lappin said. “We just knew we had to pick it up. I had a feeling, the whole team had a feeling, that we were going to have a big game.”

One of Lappin’s best throws came with 19 seconds left in the second quarter. Santa Ana (1-5, 1-0) had a fourth and 11 at the Fullerton 16 and the Dons elected to go for it partly because kicker Anousith Wilaikul is out for the season with a broken ankle.

Lappin took advantage of the opportunity to throw a 16-yard scoring pass to Rob Caston, who was open in the right corner of the end zone.

“Archie worked doubly hard in practice this week,” Santa Ana Coach Dave Ogas said. “He did extra film work and stayed late throwing to our receivers.”

Santa Ana’s defense also turned in a dominating performance. Fullerton (1-5, 0-1) was held to 14 yards and no first downs in the first half and 116 yards and eight first downs in the game.

Fullerton didn’t score until quarterback Aaron Currell ran in from two yards out with 8:23 left in the game.

Santa Ana leads the series, which is the oldest in the state, 38-34-4.