Football: JSerra 31, Trabuco Hills 21

With Trinity and South Coast League play looming, both JSerra and Trabuco Hills were looking forward to their nonleague showdown as a means of continuing much-needed momentum.

The two teams are respectively, the two underdogs in Orange County's toughest leagues top to bottom.

And after 48 minutes at Saddleback College, it was JSerra that was dancing on the field.

Well, its fans, anyway.

JSerra players were engulfed by classmates who stormed the field following the Lions' 31-21 homecoming victory over Trabuco. The swarm was so great, the teams didn't even bother with postgame handshakes, but there had to be mutual respect coming from both sides.

JSerra (5-0) closed out the nonleague portion of its schedule unbeaten for the fourth time in five years. Since going 1-4 on the field (another victory was by forfeit) in Coach Jim Hartigan's first season, the Lions are 23-2.

JSerra, though, begins Trinity play next week against Mater Dei (4-1), and although the Monarchs were beaten on Friday by Harbor City Narbonne, 18-17, they are considered one of the top teams in the state.

"It's a whole different level next week," said Hartigan, whose program is hoping to win a league game—in arguably the toughest league in the nation—for the third time in four seasons.

Junior Casey Eugenio led JSerra on both sides of the ball. In the first quarter when Trabuco was outperforming JSerra, Eugenio intercepted a pass and returned it 43 yards for a 7-0 lead.

At the end of the third quarter, he scored from 1 yard and added the two-point conversion for a 24-21 lead, and late in the fourth quarter returned an interception 32 yards to the Trabuco 24. Eugenio gained the rest of it from the backfield, including his four-yard scoring run to go up 31-21.

Not only did JSerra score on defense, but Logan Bartlett blocked a punt that went out of the back of the end zone for a safety, allowing special teams to get in on the act.

Not all of JSerra's drives were short. The Lions went up 14-7 on a 23-yard completion from Nick Robinson to Dante Pettis to complete a 72-yard drive, and Eugenio's third quarter score capped a 93-yard drive that included a 64-yard completion to Pettis

Trabuco Hills (4-2), which faces Tesoro (5-0) in the South Coast League opener, played short-handed at wide receiver as sophomore Jacob Breeland (6-5) and senior Cole Breeland (6-4)—they're brothers—were out because of injuries, Jacob with an ankle and Cole with a hip.

With a passing game that was severely hampered, Trabuco made the best of it. Nathan Perry completed seven of 18 passes for 114 yards—including a 58-yarder that made the bulk of a 75-yard  drive that ended with Perry's score from 1 yard. Perry also scored from 2 yards with 3:24 left in the third quarter capping a 62-yard march that gave Trabuco a 21-16 lead.

Trabuco's other score came after a bad snap by JSerra on a punt gave Trabuco possession at the seven-yard line; J.T. Land scored from three yards to cut the deficit to 16-14.