IRVINE – University wasn’t at full strength when it took the field for its season opener with Segerstrom Friday night. But the Trojans still had enough firepower to pull off a 28-6 nonleague victory over the Jaguars at University.
University (1-0) was without star tight end Parker Dickey, who suffered a shoulder injury in practice. It’s not clear how long Dickey will be out.
“I’m sure kids on this team and the coaches thought, ‘Oh, what are we going to do now?’” said University coach Mark Cunningham. “And Neil Boudreau stepped up.”
Boudreau, playing wide receiver, hauled in three catches for 71 yards and helped the Trojans get in scoring position.
“It was a pretty good team effort; I think we ran the ball and we had some key passes in key situations and defensively, we bent but we didn’t break,” Cunningham said. “They made a lot of mistakes and we were fortunate enough to take advantage of a lot of those mistakes.”
Quarterback Wes Jordan was solid for University, throwing a 19-yard touchdown pass to Allahsan Jenkins in the first quarter and a 7-yard TD pass to Matt Abellaneda in the second quarter.
Jordan wound up with 130 yards passing. Abellaneda, who rushed for 58 yards, also scored on a 2-yard TD run in the third quarter, which put University ahead, 21-6.
Segerstrom (0-2) was victimized by two fumbles and key penalties in the first half, both costing the Jaguars opportunities to score.
The Jaguars cut the University lead to 7-6 when George Ortega scored from 7 yards out in the first quarter.
But University controlled the rest of the game.
“I give it to University, they outplayed us and we made mistakes,” said Segerstrom coach Mike Maceranka. “Once again, we’re inside the red zone twice and don’t score. We just have to keep improving. We have three more weeks to get it right.”
Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com
