El Toro Wins Again on Big Drives at End

El Toro’s offense went from bad in the first half to worse in the third quarter Friday night. Bad enough to forget they actually led 10-0 at halftime.

The Chargers had only four first downs heading into the final quarter when they came up with their best drive of the game, a nine-play, 72-yard march that helped them to a 17-10 nonleague win over Woodbridge at Trabuco Hills High.

The 3-minute 30-second drive produced four more Charger first downs and broke a 10-10 game with 6:50 remaining.

El Toro’s Tom Kirchmeyer connected with Vinnie Mascari from 10 yards out to cap the game-winning drive.

Prior to that, the Chargers (2-2) had just 64 yards of offense. But they came up with the late big drive to win for the second consecutive week.

“The last two games, we’ve had critical drives,” El Toro Coach Mike Milner said. “We’re such a young football team and we hope the experience in five preseason games will carry big dividends for us.”

El Toro’s Matt Frey intercepted a tipped Woodbridge pass early in the first quarter at the Warrior 24-yard line. The play set up a Nick Walsh one-yard touchdown run that put the Chargers up, 7-0.

After Garrett Collins’ field goal from 22 yards padded El Toro’s halftime lead, the Warriors got a 29-yard field goal from Jason Ellis in the third quarter to cut it to 10-3.

A bad snap on an El Toro punt put the Warriors at the El Toro nine-yard line with 2:19 left in the third. After retreating because of a holding penalty, Tim Kegel found Mike Nyberg, who made a leaping catch over El Toro’s Jacob Hill, for and a 16-yard touchdown reception.

Walsh carried 24 times for 67 yards. Will Banks led Woodbridge with 64 yards in 15 carries.

Robert Johnson had two sacks for Woodbridge (2-2), which was penalized 14 times for 127 yards.