MISSION VIEJO – Capistrano Valley’s high-octane offense sputtered for three quarters Friday night, then caught fire in the fourth to pull out a 17-10 victory over Trabuco Hills in a nonleague game at Trabuco Hills.
Kevin Brown threw touchdown passes of 44 yards to Riley Kasper and 11 yards to Michael Dyer, and Clay Eggeman kicked a tying 41-yard field goal – all in the fourth quarter – as the Cougars spoiled a gutty defensive effort by the Mustangs.
Capo Valley (4-1) went into the game as the No. 16 team in Orange County, with the county’s third-ranked passer in Brown. The Cougars were averaging 42.5 points a game, and Brown was throwing for 345 yards a game.
But Trabuco Hills (2-3) smothered that offense for three quarters, holding Brown to 70 passing yards in the first half, most of those on sideline passes or screens.
The game shaped up as a meeting of two of the county’s top 10 passers, with Trabuco Hills senior Tommy Germain coming in ranked ninth at 227.8 yards per game.
Both quarterbacks eventually did post decent numbers, with Brown hitting 17 of 29 passes for 193 yards, and Germain completing 18 of 28 for 238.
But it took a long time to get there.
Defense dominated the first half for both sides, with Trabuco Hills’ front four of Ryan Ramer, Michael Mondragon, Bryan Campos and Garrett Pinvidic smothering the Cougars’ running and passing game. The Mustangs forced three punts, recorded two sacks and got an interception by Luis Alvarez.
The interception set up the Mustangs’ first score, putting them at the Capo Valley 35 and culminating in Germain’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Chris Ingoglia with 4:51 left in the first quarter. The 7-0 lead stood until halftime.
Trabuco Hills made it 10-0 late in the third quarter on Ryan Brosnan‘s 21-yard field goal. The score was set up by Germain’s 53-yard bomb to a wide-open Michael O’Malley down the left sideline that carried to the Capo Valley 10. Brosnan’s field goal came with 2:02 left in the quarter.
But Capo Valley took over in the fourth. Brown found Kasper at the goal line with a 44-yard touchdown bomb just 49 seconds into the quarter to make it 10-7.
A sack by Capo Valley’s Brock Ricci forced a punt that the Cougars pressured into a short kick out of bounds at midfield. Brown again found Kasper for a 21-yard pass to the 30, and Eggeman, drilled a 41-yard field goal to tie the score at 10-10 with 5:06.
Just 21 seconds later, the Cougars recovered a Trabuco Hills fumble at the Mustangs’ 31. That set up the go-ahead touchdown, an 11-yard pass from Brown to Dyer with 3:15 left.
Trabuco Hills fought back immediately, Germain hitting Colin Hurd for 25 yards on a slant on the Mustangs’ first play from scrimmage. But the next three passes were incomplete, one of them dropped, and Capo Valley all but sealed the win on a sack by Zach Ritner on fourth down.
