LAGUNA HILLS – Capistrano Valley has been explosive in its wins and sent a statement to the Sea View League on Friday night.
Capistrano Valley held Laguna Hills without a touchdown and Kevin Brown threw four touchdown passes in a 40-3 victory in each team’s league opener at Laguna Hills High.
“(Defense has) been our strength all year,” Capo Valley coach Ernst Bucher said. “It’s who we are. It’s our identity.”
Laguna Hills (3-3, 0-1) opened up big with a 62-yard catch and run by Hawks playmaker Logan Montgomery off a quick pass from Ross Leigber.
The Hawks settled for a 28-yard field goal, and that was all Capistrano Valley (6-1, 1-0) would allow.
After that opening shot, the Cougars held Montgomery to just 11 yards on four touches the rest of the game.
“We had a whole game plan for him,” Andre Vera said. “We knew everywhere he would be. We had to call him out every single play.”
Vera led the Cougars defense with two sacks.
Capo Valley finally picked up steam offensively in the second quarter.
“The biggest play of the game,” Bucher said. “A third-and-3 toss, that was our first first down of the game on our third or fourth offensive series. That finally woke us up.”
Following that first down, Gianni Muñoz broke free for a 68-yard run, and Brown finished the drive on a 2-yard touchdown pass to Riley Kasper.
Brown hit Kasper again with a 38-yard pass on the next drive. Kian Assarpour cashed in with a 1-yard TD run.
With less than two minutes left in the half, the Cougars acted quickly as this time Kasper showed off his shortstop’s arm on 34-yard reverse pass back to Brown. Brown found Nathan Manning on a 6-yard touchdown pass for a 20-3 halftime lead.
A 51-yard interception return by Justin Burk set up the first of two second-half TD passes to Michael Dyer as the Cougars closed things out.
