Santa Ana Quiets Saddleback : Defense Shuts Down Passing Game for 21-0 Victory

Santa Ana High School quarterback Jesse Rosas was intercepted once and sacked four times. Oscar Wilson, Santa Ana’s exceptional defensive lineman, was bottled up most of the night. Running back Garner Hicks gained 164 very quiet yards and the Saints turned the ball over three times.

Oh yeah, Santa Ana beat Saddleback, 21-0, in a nonleague game Thursday at Santa Ana Stadium. It was the kind of game in which neither team seemed on track, and therefore a game that a team with superior talent, i.e. Santa Ana, was almost destined to win.

Santa Ana’s defense was the real star of the night, limiting Saddleback to seven yards of offense in the first quarter, and 83 for the first half.

Especially hard hit was the Saddleback pass attack, if you can all it that. Junior quarterback Paul Delgado completed 10 of 30 passes for 94 yards and was intercepted three times in the second half.

“We were stunting guys outside most of the game,� said Ben Haley, Santa Ana’s defensive coordinator. “We wanted to put a little hurry up in their offense.�

The Saddleback running game didn’t fare any better. Keith Gober gained 69 yards on 10 carries, but the next-best Saddleback rusher was J.J. Fejeran, who gained two yards on six carries.

“This was a good game for us,� Haley said.

But not necessarily one for the 6-foot-3 235-pound Wilson, generally considered the top lineman in Orange County. Double teamed most of the night, Wilson didn’t get in on many tackles. Those were left for linebacker Herb Prawl, who seemed to be just about everywhere.

“Herb was getting a lot of free shots,� Haley said. “But Oscar was getting a little frustrated. We tell him to be patient, that these kinds of things are going to happen all year because everyone’s afraid of Oscar.�

Neither team moved the ball much in the scoreless first quarter, but Santa Ana got a break when Rene Cadena recovered a Saddleback fumble on the Roadrunners 34-yard line late in that quarter.

Four plays later, early in the second quarter, Rosas completed a 14-yard touchdown pass to Octavio Medina. Gustavo Plasencia’s extra point made it, 7-0.

Santa Ana’s next scoring drive, all of two plays, started with about a minute to play in the first half and at its 20. Hicks rushed for five yards on the first play and then, on a simple trap play, broke through the line, cut right and up the sideline. At about the Saddleback 20-yard line, defensive back Victor Davis had an angle on Hicks and hit him, but Hicks managed to stay in bounds and accelerated into the end zone.

“I didn’t expect the play to go for big yards, and I thought that guy was going to push me out of bounds,� Hicks said.

Hicks’ 75-yard scoring run was one of just three runs he had for double figures.

“The whole game seemed to be a real slow tempo,� he said. “I never felt really in it.�

Santa Ana’s last touchdown came midway through the third quarter when Rosas, who completed eight of 14 passes for 112 yards, completed a four-yard pass to Efren Nava.