No. 1 Orange Lutheran upended by Bishop Amat

COSTA MESA- Orange Lutheran committed five turnovers in its season-opening game but won easily.

Orange County’s top-ranked team made five turnovers against Bishop Amat of La Puente on Friday night and wasn’t so fortunate.

Bishop Amat forced all five of its turnovers in the second half and rallied from a 24-point second-quarter deficit to stun Orange Lutheran, 47-39, at Orange Coast College.

Bishop Amat (1-1) trailed 24-0 with less than five minutes left in the second quarter but took the lead in third and never let it go. Bishop Amat scored 28 points off Orange Lutheran’s turnovers.

Orange Lutheran coach Jim Kunau was quick to praise Bishop Amat but didn’t miss the significance of his team’s turnovers.

“How many did we have? Five? Ten?” said Kunau, whose team last week beat Bullard of Fresno, 35-17.

“First of all, I take my hat off to Bishop Amat. Boy, what a great job they did. They played really hard and they obviously did a great job capitalizing on our mistakes.”

Bishop Amat, which played without UCLA commit and standout linebacker Isaiah Bowens (leg), started to shift the momentum in the middle of the second quarter with a pair of long touchdown drives. A 12-yard touchdown reception by Daoud Ibrahim from Jerry McClanahan with two seconds left in the first half cut Orange Lutheran’s lead to 24-14.

Bishop Amat forced three fumbles in third quarter and scored 21 points off the turnovers to take control.

Defensive lineman Daniel Kane recovered the first fumble at Orange Lutheran’s 10 just 34 seconds into the second half and two plays later, running back Deshawn Gaisie scored on a 2-yard run as Bishop Amat cut Orange Lutheran’s lead to 24-21.

Bishop Amat linebacker Jonathan Maffie then recovered a second fumble 1:24 later on Orange Lutheran’s ensuing drive at Orange Lutheran’s 35. That fumble led to a 1-yard touchdown run by Gaisie, who gave Bishop Amat its first lead at 28-24.

Orange Lutheran punted on its next possession of the third but on its fourth possession of the quarter, it fumbled at its 38. Bishop Amat capitalized on a 4-yard touchdown by Brent Seals on a fourth-and-3 to take a 35-24 lead with 3:02 left in the third. Bishop Amat converted four fourth-down attempts in the game.

Orange Lutheran drew to 35-32 with 7:44 left in the fourth quarter on Exavier Edwards’ 11-yard touchdown reception on a screen pass by quarterback Bobby Wheatley. Edwards also ran in the two-point conversion.

But Gaisie kept pounding in the fourth, scoring on a 35-yard touchdown run on 3-and-9 with 2:11 left as Bishop Amat took a 41-32 lead.

The teams then traded scores in the final two minutes.

Bishop Amat had no turnovers.

Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com