EAGLES 21, TRABUCO HILLS 17 (MISSION VIEJO, Oct. 10, 2003)

Quarterback Michael Angelo passed for a career-high three touchdowns and Mark Restelli batted away a fourth down pass in the endzone with 0:47 to play as the Eagles defeated the Trabuco Hills Mustangs 21-17 at Saddleback College. The victory was Santa Margarita’s fifth in a row over their cross-town rivals and allowed them to enter Serra League play with an unblemished 5-0 record for the second year in a row.

With Angelo sitting out the first quarter for disciplinary reasons the Eagles started out slowly as Ryan Nienhuis was only able to guide the team to two first downs. Defensively, the Eagles stopped the Mustangs on downs twice and Matt Steinbach recovered a muffed fumble on a punt to keep an Eagle drive alive. It didn’t take long for Angelo to make an impact. One the third play of the second quarter he found Nienhuis in stride on a 28-yard scoring pass to take a 7-0 lead with 11:00 to go in the half. After former Eagle RB P.J. Vallier scored from five yards out to tie the game at seven, Angelo found Nienhuis on the exact same route – this time from 36 yards out - to make it 14-7 at the 3:17 mark. The score stayed the same until 6:49 was left in the third quarter when Angelo found Colin Schmit on a 14-yard scoring strike to make it 21-7. Trabuco Hills didn’t give up as Vallier’s second touchdown – this one from three yards out made it 21-14 with 2:35 left in the third quarter. A 27-yard field goal by Derik Martinez with 9:41 left in the game was the result of a short field compliments of a failed fourth down conversion attempt by the Eagles at their own 45 yard line. With 7:01 left the Mustangs went on a plodding 14-play drive that finally stalled on the Eagle 21 nearly 6 ½ minutes later. On fourth down QB Alex Aubel’s pass was batted away by Restelli (nine tackles) in the far corner of the endzone preserving the Eagle win.

Besides the play of Restelli, seniors Jack Meehan and Matt Rupp made significant contributions on the defensive side of the ball as they picked up 11 and 10 tackles respectively. Meehan also recovered a fumble and Rupp extended his career sacks record to 25 with 1 ½ in the game.