SAN CLEMENTE – The San Clemente offense has steadily improved through its first three games of the season. It may be difficult to maintain that steady improvement after Friday night’s peak performance against Atascadero.
Sam Darnold tossed five touchdown passes and the Tritons scored on all six of their first-half possessions en route to a 49-20 nonleague victory at San Clemente High.
Of Darnold’s five touchdown passes, his second was the clear standout. Feeling a little pressure, Darnold rolled out right, heaved a 35-yard pass on the run and hit receiver Dean Licht in stride in the end zone to give San Clemente (4-0) a 14-0 lead.
“All my receivers and my line, we were clicking,” Darnold said. “The credit goes to my receivers for catching the ball and the line for blocking.”
Darnold, who has committed to USC, completed all 13 of his first-half pass attempts and finished 14 of 16 for 183 yards. While Darnold finished drives, Tritons running back Vlad Dzhabiyev paced them, rushing for 124 yards on 14 carries.
After the Tritons took a 14-0 lead, Atascadero (3-1) got on the board with a 13-yard run by Marc Martin late in the first quarter. After another pair of Darnold touchdown passes, quarterback Tommy Carr’s 10-yard keeper reduced the deficit to 28-14.
“We knew going in that we had to stop the run and they got their yards in here and there,” Coach Jaime Ortiz said. “We have to shore some things up for Newport Harbor, but it’s a good victory and we came out healthy.”
Darnold never slowed, hitting Cole Fotheringham for a 7-yard TD and Jake Feiner for a 12-yard score to give the Tritons a 42-14 halftime lead.
The senior added a rushing touchdown before Ortiz pulled him with 2:53 remaining in the third quarter.
Darnold hit eight different receivers, five of which scored touchdowns.
Liam Eldridge and Andrew Frohner had interceptions for the Tritons.
Contact the writer: npercy@ocregister.com
