ANAHEIM, Calif. – On the 50th anniversary of playing its bitter rival, Servite (Anaheim, Calif.) honored its first varsity team - it won a Southern Section title in 1960 without any seniors - and provided a golden moment that few of the 15,404 at Angel Stadium will soon forget.
Servite QB Cody Pittman was steady in victory.
Photo by David Hood
An 87-yard run by
Malik Felton, the kind that happens more often in video games than in real life, stunned the
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) faithful and sparked Servite to a 21-14 victory that sets the stage for another Trinity League showdown next week.
Servite (8-0, 3-0) and Santa Margarita (7-1, 3-0), which escaped with a 42-41 overtime victory over St. John Bosco, will face each other Friday at Saddleback College to determine the likely league champion.
Servite is ranked No. 19 in the Xcellent 25, and is ranked No. 23 nationally and No. 6 in the state by MaxPreps' Freeman Rating. Mater Dei is ranked No. 16 in the state. Santa Margarita is No. 11.
There's no telling how many young recruits Servite may have influenced with its second victory in a row against the Monarchs. Mater Dei leads the series, 32-16-2, but Servite won in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1986-88, which preceded a 20-year winless streak that had dogged the program.
No question, the victory over a Mater Dei team with a lot of momentum validated last season's victory and Servite's role in the so-called Holy War.
Felton's cannon shot of a run came on Servite's first offensive play of the second half, and it was more yards than the Friars had gained in all of the first half. He broke two tackles and made three cuts as he followed and outran his blockers into the end zone, a fist pump providing an exclamation point.
"I just wanted to get down the field and do my best on that play because I know we really needed it and my teammates were counting on me, so I gave my heart out on every single one of those plays," said Felton, a 5-foot-7 senior who gained 199 yards last week after Sean DeRosa was injured.
Mater Dei's Corbin Anderson (24) is upended.
Photo by David Hood
A former running back who converted to receiver and now seems to have played his way into the backfield once more, Felton finished with 23 carries for 188 yards and two touchdowns, adding a six-yard touchdown with 7:14 left in the game for a 21-7 lead.
That run capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive in which junior quarterback Cody Pittman (9 of 14, 60 yards) completed all four of his passes and ran three times for 36-yards, including a 24-yard run on second-and-long that preceded Felton's TD.
"He's got something inside of him and he's just trying to get out," said Servite coach Troy Thomas said of Felton. "The way he runs – he runs so dang hard. He has that special thing that running backs have. The greatest thing about him is that he's been a running back in our program, he's been a guy who's done this stuff but not consistently enough, and he's just hung in there.
"We move him to receiver. In his mind he's going, 'Dude, c'mon, I'm a running back.' But he never let it get him down. We moved him to receiver and he kept playing and working hard. I'm thankful he got his opportunity. I'm not thankful that Sean DeRosa got hurt, but I'm thankful that Malik's getting his chance to show what he can do and prove to us coaches that we made a mistake."
Servite's defense continued to excel.
The first unit, missing two starters, had allowed only six touchdowns through its first seven games, and two of those were on drives of 22 and 21 yards.
Mater Dei's Max Wittek was intercepted four times.
Photo by David Hood
They gave up scoring drives to Mater Dei of 71 and 80 yards but also took their quarter. They grabbed four interceptions against USC-bound quarterback
Max Wittek (16 of 30, 159 yards), and cornerbacks
Karlton Dennis and Jordan Jones limited USC-bound receiver
Victor Blackwell to two receptions for seven yards.
Dennis had one interception on a long pass intended for Blackwell, and linebacker
Matt Inman had two – on Mater Dei's first offensive play that he returned 12 yards to the MD 28, and after Felton's long run that he returned 40 yards to the 12.
Both ended in errant field goals, the second one blocked by Mater Dei's John Tavarez.
Yet the biggest interception of all belong to defensive lineman Troy Niklas, who read a screen pass and returned the ball 26 yards for Servite's only touchdown of the first half. It came on Wittek's third pass of the night, and the former tight end – who missed the last seven games of Servite's State Bowl Championship run – scored for the first time since last year's 30-20 victory over the Monarchs.
"It's nice to see our hard work pay off," Niklas said. "We're not going to be fazed by our offense or our defense not doing well. We just do our job."
That has been the case all season. The team has had to grow with a junior quarterback, Pittman, who is replacing one of the best dual-threats in Orange County history, Cody Fajardo. But Pittman's poise and composure in the final drive is something to build on.
Servite's Connor Einck can not be arm-tackled.
Photo by David Hood
"We have high expectations from last year," said defensive lineman
Jody Thomas, who also doubles as a running back in Servite's power package. "On that last drive, it was nice to see (Pittman) come together at the end, keep our defense off the field. We're getting a lot more confidence in him, and he's on his way. He's going to be very good over the next couple of weeks."
Against their biggest rival and on the biggest stage of the season, the Friars were very good on defense, and eventually very good on offense. And as they continue to forge through one of the toughest gauntlets in the state, they continue to prove they are very good, period.
