ORANGE — Crean Lutheran took one step forward and two steps back for much of the first half against El Modena on Friday night.
When the Saints finally quit hurting themselves with penalties, they were able to mostly move the ball at will in the eventual 34-0 victory at El Modena High.
“Our defense played great, our special teams played great,” Crean Lutheran coach Rick Curtis said. “We’ve just got to get our offense untracked.”
Crean Lutheran (4-0) had a 61-yard touchdown called back on its opening drive of the game because of a holding penalty.
The Saints had two first-down catches negated on their second drive by penalties and eventually had to punt the ball away, resulting in a scoreless first quarter.
“It’s unfortunate,” Curtis said. “We just get pushed back. Good play, get pushed back. Good play, get pushed back, so we’ve got to be more disciplined on offense. That’s just the key.”
After losing another first down to a penalty on the opening play of the third drive, Crean Lutheran finally broke through with a 52-yard touchdown run by Cole Ocana the first time he touched the ball.
Taiga Takada then returned a punt 55 yards to the El Modena 10-yard line and the Saints scored one play later on a touchdown pass from Caden Jones to Mateo Munoz, stretching the lead to 13-0 with 5:37 left in the first half.
Evan Mack killed the next El Modena drive with an interception, leading to the third touchdown in just over four minutes for Crean Lutheran when Dillon Booth scored on a 1-yard run off a direct snap and Munoz caught the two-point conversion to make it 21-0 with 3:54 left in the half.
El Modena used a 37-yard reception by Jason Ramos to move into Crean Lutheran territory late in the first half, but the Saints sacked Ethan Sorenson on three straight snaps to move the Vanguards back to midfield.
“We definitely played really good as a defense,” said Crean Lutheran defensive end James Carrington, who had two of his team’s four sacks. “In the first quarter, when we got three sacks back to back to back, we needed the defense to step up and make a stop, so we did.”
The Saints punted on their first two drives of the second half, but an interception by Bryce Coleman led to a 36-yard touchdown run by Booth, who broke two tackles and then tight-roped the sideline to stretch the lead to 28-0 with two seconds left in the third quarter.
Anthony Jones scored the final touchdown for Crean Lutheran on an 18-yard touchdown reception with 9:09 left.
Jones finished 27 of 37 for 267 passing yards and two touchdowns. Booth finished with 11 catches for 139 yards and a score.
El Modena was shut out for the first time since Nov. 8, 2019, a 36-0 loss to St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs in a first-round CIF-SS playoff game.