ORANGE COUNTY / PREP FOOTBALL : Servite Wins Struggle With Aztecs : Football: Friars’ defense is key to 14-3 victory over Esperanza, but offense needs some polishing.

Servite and Esperanza football games are often taut affairs that are in doubt until the final gun. The offenses are sharp, the defenses make a game-saving play or two.

That wasn’t the case Friday. If you blinked, you missed most of the action in Servite’s 14-3 victory, before an estimated crowd of 2,500 at Cal State Fullerton.

All the scoring took place in the first quarter. Servite fullback Chad Bystedt scored on a three-yard run and defensive end Justin Dunleavy returned a fumble 42 yards for a touchdown. Esperanza kicker Ben Mastropaolo made a 35-yard field goal.

That was it. The other three quarters were bogged down by the Aztecs’ inability to move the ball, and the Friars stopping themselves with penalties. Servite (2-0) drew eight flags for 95 yards.

Asked if he planned to burn the game film, Servite Coach Larry Toner smiled slightly.

“Well this will not be a motivational film,” Toner said. “It will be an instructional film. There are quite a few things we’ll have to correct.”

Defense wasn’t the problem. Servite swallowed up Esperanza rushers, giving up only 14 net yards. Aztec quarterback Greg Farrell passed for 144 yards, but completed only 14 of 34 attempts. Wide receiver Ryan Murray caught eight passes for 100 yards, 58 of those on his last two receptions when the Servite secondary coverage was much looser.

Esperanza Coach Gary Meek did not know what to expect from his young team in its first game. But he expected more than three points.

“We’re going to have to play much better on offense if we’re going to win any games,” Meek said.

Servite’s offense had little of the crispness in showed last week in a victory over Tustin. Tailback Frank Magdaleno chipped away for 71 rushing yards, mainly on draw plays. But quarterback Adam Ernst completed only three of 13 passes for 23 yards.

“Credit the Esperanza defense,” Toner said. “They were able to do some things that we obviously weren’t used to.”

Which made Dunleavy’s play all the more crucial, even if it came with less than four minutes to play in the first quarter.

Farrell took the snap from the Esperanza 49 and drifted back to pass when he was sacked by Kyle Hoertz and Tom Blashaw. Dunleavy was coming to join the party when he saw the ball on the ground.

“I just picked it up and ran as hard as I could,” said Dunleavy, who scored on a similar play last year against Saddleback.

“We know that, as good as our offense is, there will be some games they will be stopped and the defense has to step up. But I also think if our defense comes to play like this every week, we’ll be something to watch.”