Highlights, recap: No. 1 St. John Bosco outlasts No. 9 Santa Margarita 27-14

In another showdown of nationally-ranked teams in California's rugged Trinity League, No. 1 St. John Bosco (Bellflower) made sure No. 9 Santa Margarita (Rancho Santa Margarita) didn't pull off an upset for the second straight week. The  Braves scored on their first three possessions and added a fourth score in the third quarter to beat the Eagles 27-14 on Friday.

Last week, Santa Margarita got a late score to upend No. 11 Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 7-6.

On Friday, Bosco got four touchdown passes from sophomore quarterback Koa Malau'ulu to four different receivers. He threw three touchdown passes to a trio of receivers over the first 14 minutes of the game as the Braves held a 21-7 halftime lead. 

Malau'ulu hit Carson Clark on a 69-yard pass, Daniel Odom for a 25-yard strike and D.J. Tubbs for a 12-yard score. Madden Williams caught the fourth TD pass of the night on a 35-yard toss on Bosco's first possession of the second half.

Malau'ulu was 17 of 22 for 299 yards and the four scores while Oregon commit Dutch Horisk had three of the five sacks of Santa Margarita quarterback Trace Johnson.

The bright spot for head coach Carson Palmer's Eagles was USC commit wideout Trent Mosley, who had a 69-yard wildcat run to set up his 1-yard TD a few plays later.

The game was closer than the score often indicated as Mosley did his best to keep the Eagles in it with 90 yards rushing and one catch for six yards. The other factor that helped the Eagles was Bosco being whistled for 19 penalties for more than 175 yards, many of which extended Santa Margarita drives.

The Eagles cut the lead to 21-14 with a 12-play, 80-yard drive on their first possession of the second half that drained more than seven minutes off the clock. Mosley scored his second rushing touchdown to cap the drive.

But St. John Bosco answered right back as Malau'ulu engineered a six-play scoring drive highlighted by the 35-yard dart to Williams.

St. John Bosco (8-0) continues Trinity League play Oct. 24 with a home game against Servite (Anaheim) before a regular-season ending clash with rival Mater Dei on Oct. 31. Santa Margarita (5-3) hosts Orange Lutheran (Orange) on Oct. 24.