Fryer breaks down Week 2's impact

Mater Dei's loss to Centennial of Corona did not expose the Monarchs' weaknesses.

Those had been exposed two weeks ago, when Mater Dei needed three overtimes to beat Carson. That game showed the Monarchs could be beaten by a team with superior speed, especially superior defensive speed.

Centennial of Corona beat Mater Dei, 47-35, because Centennial could blitz Mater Dei quarterback Matt Barkley and get away with it. The Huskies looked a lot like Long Beach Poly - big, skillful and quick.

"They were physical and they were fast," Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson said, which sounds a lot like Poly … although Rollinson at first seemed to sort of scoff at my postgame comparison of Centennial to Poly. Centennial was No. 4 in California, one position behind Mater Dei, in the state rankings this week.

Mater Dei was the county's No. 1 ranked team, replacing Orange Lutheran in that position after Lutheran lost last week to Bishop Amat of La Puente.

The Monarchs were not the only Orange County top 10 team that lost. Three others lost: No. 2 Servite; No. 7 Esperanza; and No. 9 Newport Harbor.

Servite lost at Crespi of Encino, 21-20. The Friars lost a fumble at the Crespi 10, and had an interception returned by Crespi for a touchdown. It might have been asking a lot to expect Servite to take the long trip to Crespi one week after taking an even longer trip to Fresno to play and beat Clovis West last week.

Esperanza lost to Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach, 14-9. No offense, but Esperanza has no offense. The Aztecs have scored 30 points over three games, a pace that is not going to win the Sunset League championship.

Newport Harbor lost to Long Beach Poly, 26-2. Yes, that is a one-sided score, but not a surprising one. Poly is just that good.

No. 3 Mission Viejo beat La Costa Canyon of Carlsbad, No. 22 in California, 38-14. Mission certainly will get plenty of first-place votes in next week's top 10 balloting.

Orange Lutheran won, but don't look for the Lancers to return to No. 1. They struggled to beat winless Tustin, 10-0.

Three of the county's five teams in the Trinity League lost, with Santa Margarita, defeated by Foothill, 30-26, being the third. Besides Lutheran, the other Trinity winner was JSerra, which beat Saddleback on Thursday.

La Habra beat South Hills of Covina, the No. 1-ranked team in the Southeast Division, 22-13. That's a good victory for the Highlanders.

No. 10 San Clemente beat Trabuco Hills, as expected. But the margin was not: 41-7.

A result that might not seem significant but was: Whittier Christian 34, Savanna 16. That's significant because the smaller private schools don't always beat a middle-division public-school team. St. Margaret's might be better than Whittier Christian, so if Whittier Christian can beat a public-school team like Savanna, and soundly, then maybe St. Margaret's is a legitimate top 25 county team after all.

It was a dramatic week in county football.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com