Valencia Beats Overmatched Anaheim, 42-0

Valencia dominated on both sides of the ball Thursday night, shutting out Anaheim, 42-0, in the teams’ Orange League opener.

The Tigers wasted no time, scoring just 2:08 into the first quarter when Ryan Swearingen recovered a botched punt in the end zone for a touchdown.

“Special teams is something that we work at, and the guys did a great job tonight,” Valencia Coach Mike Marrujo said.

Valencia (5-1, 1-0) struck again less than five minutes later when quarterback Brian Bartczak hit Sal Mora with a seven-yard touchdown pass. Keith Allen kicked the extra point to make it 14-0.

“We tried to mix it up all night between the running game and the passing game and it seemed to work for us,” Marrujo said.

The Tigers kept up the pressure with their offense in the second quarter when Bartczak connected with Giovanni Alvarez-Mena on a 35-yard touchdown pass to make the score 21-0 at the half.

Valencia began the second half much the way it ended the first, with another touchdown. This time Alvarez-Mena returned the kickoff 93 yards to make the score 28-0.

Barely two minutes later, Mora intercepted a pass by quarterback Ryan Paterson at the Anaheim 24-yard line and ran it back 75 yards to the Colonist 1. Mora scored on the next play to put Valencia up, 35-0.

The Tiger offense wasn’t done yet. With 1:38 remaining in the third quarter, running back Scott Parker carried two yards into the end zone to put his team up, 42-0.

“It’s good to start off league play with a victory,” Marrujo said.

Anaheim (1-5, 0-1) ended a 24-game losing streak Oct. 1.