SANTA ANA – Mater Dei football coach Bruce Rollinson hoisted the arm of legendary former Monarchs coach Dick Coury toward the red-clad faithful before the players sprinted onto the field.
Orange County’s top-ranked team honored its stars from the 1950s and 1960s on Friday night, but a few new and young standouts soon emerged at Santa Ana Stadium.
Freshman quarterback JT Daniels passed for 297 yards and three touchdowns, including a spectacular 43-yard connection with sophomore receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, to help lead Mater Dei past feisty Edison, 42-26.
Mater Dei senior running back Brandon LaMarche rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns and also caught a score. Defensive lineman Kapono Laguisan added a sack and recovered a fumble.
After a tight first half, Mater Dei’s offense finished with 493 yards, more than enough to hold off Edison’s prolific duo of quarterback Grant Lowary and receiver Garrett White.
But it was St. Brown’s diving touchdown grab in the end zone on a half-the-field spiral from Daniels that suggested the Monarchs’ new legends have arrived.
“The freshman gets it all the way up over the top, just rainbows it right down, but that was a heck of a grab – and LaMarche was spectacular,” said Rollinson, who played for Coury at Mater Dei.
“I’m pleased with the youth of this football team that we’re 5-0. We got two weeks to work on a lot of things. We got to clean up the penalties.”
Mater Dei will take a week off before opening Trinity League play against Orange Lutheran at Orange Coast College. The Monarchs committed 15 penalties for 152 yards.
Edison (2-3), which takes a week off before opening Sunset League play against Los Alamitos, had three penalties.
Daniels completed 19 of 26 passes with no interceptions. He led the Monarchs on three consecutive scoring drives to open the second half, building a 35-10 lead. The first possession ended with the strike to St. Brown, who was mobbed by teammates afterward.
“(I was) very well protected and Amon-Ra did exactly as he normally does,” said Daniels, who has 14 TDs and one interception. “Both the St. Browns do that. They’re natural-born receivers. All our players are natural-born receivers.”
White, a Yale commit, finished with 12 receptions for 166 yards and two touchdowns. Lowary completed 28 of 44 passes for 342 yards as Edison took to the air much of the night without injured running back Jacob Marines.
Mater Dei held Edison to minus-9 yards rushing and without a rushing first down.
“They’re great and they’re young,” Edison coach Dave White said of Mater Dei. “Our kids didn’t quit. That’s all I wanted to see the last two weeks.”
Mater Dei led, 14-10, at halftime after a late touchdown. Daniels capped an 80-yard scoring drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to the corner of the end zone to AJ Collins with 43 seconds left. It was the third lead-change of the first half.
The Monarchs’ drive countered an 82-yard scoring drive by Edison, which took a 10-7 lead on a 16-yard TD catch by White. The senior grabbed a pass to the corner of the end zone by Lowary with 3:45 left.
LaMarche broke a 69-yard touchdown run in the second quarter for a 7-3 lead. LaMarche’s burst up the middle came shortly after Edison’s Bobby Jinkins had a 53-yard field goal bounce out off the bottom of the crossbar.
Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com
