ANAHEIM – After a loss in its Orange League opener last week, Santa Ana Valley was looking to put the pieces back together Thursday night at Glover Stadium.
The first half against Savanna didn’t go so well, but the defending league champions probably put together their most complete half of football after the break in a 23-14 Valley win.
The Falcons (4-3, 1-1) scored 16 consecutive points in the second half to erase Savanna’s 14-7 halftime lead, pounded away at the Rebels defense with a straight-ahead running game and limited the Savanna offense to minus-26 yards in the final 24 minutes.
“That’s the football we’ve been trying to play for a while,” Valley coach Larry Mohr said. “We’re very happy with that.”
Senior running back Cesar Ibarra led the punishing Falcons rushing attack with 177 yards (119 in the second half) and a touchdown on 21 carries, and fellow senior Louis Aceves added 102 yards and a score on 21 carries.
“That’s what we do,” Mohr said. “We don’t have a lot of speed, but we’ve got a lot of guys that come at you and we knew we were going to wear them out.”
Valley quarterback Edgar Astorga also emerged from early struggles and connected with Edward Cabrera for a 30-yard touchdown pass with 4:24 remaining to ice the game. Astorga went 1 for 6 through the air in the first half, but threw for 89 yards on 5-of-6 passing in the second.
“He finally got hot for us,” Mohr said of Astorga. “He’s struggled all year, but he’s a great kid and works hard. He finally put it together in the second half.”
Both second-half touchdowns came on fourth down plays, including a 1-yard dive into the end zone by Aceves with 9:53 remaining to give the Falcons their first lead of the game at 16-14.
As everything clicked for Valley in the second half, Savanna (3-4, 1-1) collapsed afer its early success.
The Rebels quartet of Anthony Dow, Logan Thomas, Leroy Hibbert and Josh Wilkinson combined for 201 rushing yards in the first half, but Savanna saw 11 of its 13 second-half plays result in zero or negative yardage.
Savanna had three starters serving suspensions because of ejections last week and also missed two regular players with injuries.
Savanna coach Roger Whalen also removed Hibbert – the Rebels’ starting quarterback, who scored both of the team’s touchdowns – at the half. Whalen said he has substituted for Hibbert in the second half all season, to keep the senior fresh on defense.
“With two kids hurt and three sitting at home – when you play with half a team, you run out of gas,” Whalen said. “We’re not deep enough to survive stuff like that.”
Contact the writer: jbalan@ocregister.com
