This is the first ever meeting between Santa Margarita and the Mater Dei Monarchs. It marks the highest profile game that the Eagles have played in during their 11-year existence. Mater Dei is ranked 1st in Orange County, 2nd in CIF-SS Division I, 5th in Southern California, and 8th in the State. Earlier in the year they had been ranked as high as 4th in the Nation per USA Today. They have also won three CIF titles and two national titles since 1994.

Edison International Field with a capacity of 45,050 is the largest venue that the Eagles have ever played in topping the 10,000 capacity of the Santa Ana Bowl and Cal State Fullerton's Titan Stadium

Since 1995, the Monarchs have lost only one game to a CIF-SS team - the 1997 CIF Championship Game.

The Eagles and Monarchs are the top two winningest teams in Orange County history:

The winner of this game takes sole possession of first place in the newly formed Serra League.

With the win over St. John Bosco, the Eagles are 17-6 (.739) all-time vs. Division I teams.

Head Coaches

Eagle Head Coach Jim Hartigan is 100-31-1 (.761) in his 11th season as varsity Head Coach. Overall Coach Hartigan has a 116-34-2 (.770) at Santa Margarita if you include 10-0 and 6-3-1 lower level teams that he led in 1987 and 1988 respectively before the Eagles fielded varsity teams. He was honored as the both the 1996 and 1997 Daily Pilot Sea View League Coach of the Year, CIF-SS Division V Coach of the Year and the National Football Foundation Orange County Coach of the Year. The Monarchs are led by eleventh-year coach Bruce Rollinson who is 117-22-1 at Mater Dei (.839).