SANTA ANA – Osiris St. Brown hauled in a 61-yard bomb in addition to a pair of early touchdown grabs. Nikko Remigio repeatedly ran free over the middle of the field on crossing patterns. And Amon-Ra St. Brown didn’t see a white jersey within 10 yards of him as he pulled in what may be his easiest touchdown reception of the season.
With JT Daniels throwing darts to a plethora of receiving options, La Mirada’s defense was helpless. At one point, the Matadores dropped nine players into coverage and rushed just two ends.
That didn’t work either.
How to stop the Monarchs’ high-powered offense appears to be the million dollar question after the county’s top-ranked squad steamrolled La Mirada, 48-0, Friday night in a nonleague game at Santa Ana Stadium.
Mater Dei (3-0) has outscored its three opponents, 174-14, through three weeks, and its sophomore gunslinger has already tossed 17 touchdown passes after connecting with both the St. Brown boys and C.J. Parks for a total of five on Friday evening.
“It’s too much fun to explain,” said Daniels, who connected with nine different receivers for a season-high 387 yards. “When you’ve got the St. Browns, Nikko, C.J., Bru (McCoy), (Giancarlo) Monge, Cam Gardner. I could go on forever. The line keeps it going, the receivers run their routes, and I just do my part.”
Despite throwing his first interception of the season in the second quarter, Daniels still has thrown more touchdowns (17) than incompletions (15) this year.
The Monarchs starters totaled 399 yards in the first half alone, scoring on five of their six drives to take a 34-0 lead into the break. After opening the third quarter with a nine-play, 80-yard scoring drive, they watched the remainder of the second half from the sideline.
Equally as impressive was the Mater Dei defense, which pitched its second straight shutout and forced La Mirada to three-and-outs on seven of its 10 possessions. The lone play the Matadores (1-2) ran in Monarchs territory resulted in a fumble recovered by linebacker Roman Kafentzis.
“We were very physical tonight, we were bringing it,” Monarchs coach Bruce Rollinson said. “I thought the defensive line played well. …
“We challenged the kids all week to step up. (La Mirada) is a good ball club, and they’ll go far. Our kids saw that on tape, and we played with a little bit of a different attitude tonight.”
Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com
