Santa Margarita survives surprise attack

CARSON – This was not the Bellarmine football team they showed us in the brochure.

This was supposed to be a team that ran the double-wing offense, the Bellarmine of San Jose team that Santa Margarita played Friday night in the Division 1 game of the CIF State Championship Bowl games at Home Depot Center.

Bellarmine quarterback Travis McHugh went into the game averaging 105 rushing yards a game, and 66 passing yards a game. He had thrown 11 touchdown passes over 13 games. Those are not unusual statistics for a quarterback operating in the run-heavy double-wing offense.

McHugh passed for 115 yards and a touchdown against Santa Margarita – in the first half.

Santa Margarita had to overcome so much to beat Bellarmine, 42-37, in a dramatic game that proved again that a high school football game can be the best reality show imaginable.

The Eagles were often out of sync offensively in the first half. Having played very mistake-free football through its four CIF-Southern Section victories that took Santa Margarita to the CIF-SS Pac-5 Division championship, the Eagles lost three fumbles Friday.

They had to put together a desperate drive, trailing by a point with 1:46 remaining before a clutch drive led by junior quarterback Johnny Stanton that ended with Stanton's 1-yard dive for the winning touchdown with 16 seconds to go – on fourth down.

Then there was the surprise package Bellarmine's Bells brought south with them.

Santa Margarita spent much of its practice time this week getting ready to confront the double-wing, which features a fullback very close to the quarterback, and two wingbacks hooked to each side of the offensive line. One wing goes into motion, sometimes to take a handoff or a pitchout or sometimes to act as a decoy on a quarterback keeper, a handoff to the fullback or, rarely, a pass.

It is a very difficult offense for which a defense must prepare. Santa Margarita coach Harry Welch talked during the week about how Santa Margarita had not faced that offensive scheme this season, and how it was challenging for the Eagles during practice to duplicate what they were about to confront.

Welch might have considered calling Orange County's king of the double-wing offense, Tustin coach Myron Miller to ask Miller to bring his Tillers down to Santa Margarita for a couple of practices, with a bonus tour of Santa Margarita's stunning football offices and training facility and, sure, the Eagles would throw in a catered lunch for the heck of it.

It would have been a waste of time and meal money. Often when Bellarmine came of out of the huddle the Bells sent three receivers wide. That's not Tustin's double-wing, or anyone else's.

Bellarmine had plenty of time to concoct a clever game plan. The Bells had not played since their Dec. 3 victory over Palo Alto in the CIF-Central Coast Open Division championship game. So they got creative, even throwing out of the double-wing formation.

And it all worked.

Santa Margarita pitched in, inadvertently. The Eagles lost a fumble on their first possession of the night, and Bellarmine's Bells, running that double-wing on their first possession, capitalized with a touchdown that gave them a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.

The Eagles tied it on a great pass from junior quarterback Johnny Stanton, himself better known as a runner than a passer, to River Cracraft for a 31-yard touchdown play. Another fine Stanton pass, this one of 41 yards to Sean Modster, put the Eagles on top, 14-7, late in the first quarter.

Momentum seemed to be in Santa Margarita's favor at the time. But momentum is unpredictable. So was Bellarmine.

The Bells abandoned the double-wing, spread those receivers, and went on the attack to start the second quarter. Then they went back to the double-wing and McHugh found an accommodating aisle up the middle on a quarterback draw and cruised to a 47-yard touchdown run that tied the game, 14-14, had the Santa Margarita coaching staff asking the defensive linemen several questions when they returned to the sideline.

Santa Margarita regained the lead, 21-14, on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Stanton to Cracraft. A key play on the drive was a fourth-and-2 run by Stanton that went 2 yards and one inch for the first down. The Eagles were leading, but still did not look as sharp offensively as they had in CIF-SS playoff victories over Long Beach Poly, Mission Viejo and San Clemente, or even in the overtime loss to Servite in a Trinity League game.

Bellarmine, looking more like pass-happy El Toro than run-obsessed Tustin, came out slinging again and tied it, 21-21, on a 40-yard touchdown pass from McHugh to Conner Jauch, who somehow slipped behind the Santa Margarita safeties into the end zone to await the pass.

The Bells went ahead, 24-21, on a field goal with four minutes to go in the third quarter.

Santa Margarita had been such a mistake-free team during the playoffs that perhaps it was due for the errors that nearly sunk the ship Friday. A lost fumble set up another Bellarmine touchdown, this one a 4-yard run by Justin Taliaferro. The kick for the extra point missed, leaving the Bells with a 30-21 lead with 9:50 remaining in the game.

Then the Eagles started their comeback.

Stanton connected with Connor O'Brien for a 32-yard touchdown pass with 7:52 left in the game, cutting the Bellarmine lead to 30-28.

With Santa Margarita defensive lineman Mack Pierson applying the pressure, McHugh threw a pass precisely to Eagles linebacker Matt Anderson at the Bellarmine 25, from where Anderson returned it to the 1. Stanton carried it in from there, and also ran it in for a 2-point conversion, and Santa Margarita had a 36-30 lead, its first since the midpoint of the second quarter.

The double-wing is very good at producing long drives, and points, and that's what Bellarmine did. The Bells traveled 74 yards on 13 plays, with Taliaferro waltzing in from 1-yard out to tie it, 36-36, with 1:46 to go. The Eagles let Bellarmine get that touchdown, as a time-saving move, and really wanted to block the extra-point kick by McHugh – and Santa Margarita's Zach Bonte just missed getting to it before the ball made its journey through the uprights to put Bellarmine on top, 37-36.

Santa Margarita made a championship response, with Stanton directing the drive that won it for Santa Margarita.

This game was revenge for Orange County football in general, and the Trinity League in particular. Servite got pummeled by a clearly superior De La Salle of Concord team, 48-8, last year. Orange Lutheran won a state championship game in 2006, and St. Margaret's, coached by Welch, won one in '08.

Win or lose, just getting to the CIF State Championship Bowl Games is an accomplishment. Santa Margarita accomplished more.

And Santa Margarita could be better next year. Nine of its 11 offensive starters Friday are non-seniors, including three members of that collegiate-like offensive line, and Cracraft, Stanton and Wolpin. Three of their starting four defensive backs are juniors.

We can safely project right now that Santa Margarita is the preseason No. 1 football team in Orange County for the 2012 season.

That's looking far ahead. Looking back, on the 2011 season, this was a great year for a great football team.