Host Diablos good in spots but needs upgrade against nation's No. 1 team; Bridgford throws four touchdown passes and Pinner accounts for two; Garces scores impressive win over Cypress.
MISSION VIEJO, Calif. - Much like his team on Friday night,
Mission Viejo football coach Bob Johnson gave mixed messages after his team's 35-6 win over
Centennial (Bakersfield) on opening night of the Mission Viejo Football Classic.
Senior quarterback
Alex Bridgford completed 10 of 21 passes for 260 yards and four touchdowns, including two to
Austin Reuland as the nation's 15th ranked team overcame some spotty play to win handily.
The Diablos need to clean things up in a hurry as they travel to New Jersey next week to play the nation's No. 1 squad
Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) on Friday night.
They are also keeping their fingers crossed that starting tailback and nickel back
Buzzy Yokoyama is OK after going to the hospital with an ankle injury.
"It's a good win," Johnson said several times to reporters. "(Centennial) is no slouch. Their coach is no dummy. (Their) running back can really run the ball and (their) quarterback put it on us at times.
"Hopefully we'll iron out some of our mistakes. … We're OK. I like our team."
Surely that's true, but when asked to grade his team's performance, he said. "I would not grade us very well. We're not very happy. We don't want to sound (brash) because we just beat a good football team by four touchdowns, but we're frustrated. We made way too many mistakes. We'll get better."
They got better after Centennial, ranked third in the Central Section by MaxPreps, closed to 7-6 in the second quarter on a 43-yard catch and run by track sprinter
Thomas Grimes on a nice pass from
Joe Bresson (20 of 36, 209 yards) with 6:41 left in the second quarter.
The Diablos responded immediately with a 58-yard TD bomb from Bridgford to Reuland just two minutes later.
From there, despite a variety of miscues and penalties, Mission Viejo was in complete command.
USC-bound running back
Jahleel Pinner rushed 14 times for 59 yards and a 6-yard touchdown with 6:31 left in the third. He also opened the scoring on a 15-yard TD reception and finished with three catches for 66 yards.
"There's a lot of stuff we need to work on before (Don Bosco)," Pinner said. "But big teams come out big in big games. We'll be ready."
Bridgford also completed TD passes of 26 yards to Max Redfield and a key 7-yard fourth-down strike to Reuland.
"We're going back east to play the No 1 team in the country," Johnson said. "We have to correct some things and we will. We'll be all right. …It's the first game and first games can be real crazy. We made a lot of crazy mistakes."
More than the mistakes, Johnson was more concerned with the possible loss of Yokoyama.
The rugged 5-10, 210-pound two-way senior who transferred from Newport Harbor carried five times for 37 yards including a key 26-yard run that set up Pinner's TD run.
"We're really knocking on wood (for his recovery)," Johnson said. "We haven't had him long but he fits on this team like a glove. Seems like he's been here four years. He's a wonderful kid."
Mission Viejo finished with 374 yards to 275 for Centennial. Reuland had three catches for 77 yards and D.J. Wilson had two catches for 76 yards for Centennial, which managed just 45 rushing yards on 29 attempts.
Continue for Garces' country style win over Cypress. {PAGEBREAK}
Garces (Bakersfield) 37, Cypress 20Philip Anspach threw for 243 yards and two touchdown and
Nick Vehlewald ran for 73 and two more scores as Garces hung very tough to get a big win for the Central Section in the opening game of the Mission Viejo Football Classic.
No one around the program quite knew if this was Garces' first win over a Southern Section school – certainly the first in recent memory – but either way it was a big, emotional win four hours away from home.
In fact, Garces coach John Roberts was attributing the win to the team's "country style," which stands for playing hard to the finish.
The Rams needed to because Cypress, after spotting Garces a 16-0 first-quarter lead, kept fighting back, especially in the fourth quarter.
Each time, Garces responded, especially in an entertaining final quarter that featured 35 points.
"That was a whole lot of fun," Roberts said. "The kids played a great game and it's a huge win against a big-time school."
Cypress closed to within three points twice in the fourth quarter, the last time 23-20 following a 2-yard run by
Vincent Rivera with 5:15 left. But on third down, Anspach (9 of 13) hit
Angus Bellue (3 catches, 113 yards) on a 77-yard cross-route to set up a 2-yard TD run by Vehlewald.
That made it 30-20.
Then after an interception, Vehlewald sprinted around left end and swan dived into the end zone with 2:35 remaining to put the finishing touches on this one.
Anspach, a 6-3, 185-pound senior who played as a sophomore but little as a junior, was particularly impressive. He threw TD passes of 13 yards to Bellue and 29 yards to
Chris Aguliar in the first quarter keying a 16-point spurt.
"Anspach had a great game and made some big plays," Roberts said. "We knew he would. He's been waiting for this game a long time."
Cypress closed to 16-6 just before half on a 4-yard pass from
Joe Anderson to
Joe Hoffie. Following a scoreless third quarter, the game picked up considerably as Anderson found
Jake Brito with a 54-yard scoring strike, making it 16-13.
Patrick Hellman answered immediately for Garces with a 43-yard TD run, but Cypress countered with a quick long drive itself, capped by Rivera's short touchdown burst.
In the end, Garces, ranked 14th in the Central Section, just had too much firepower.
And country style.
