MISSION VIEJO — El Modena isn’t the favorite in the Delta League, but the game film of the Vanguards’ victory over Trabuco Hills will become very popular with future opponents.
Junior quarterback Ethan Sorenson rushed for two second-half touchdowns, and the Vanguards got a strong defensive performance in a fairly thorough 21-7 road victory.
El Modena improved to 3-3 overall, 1-0 in league.
Trabuco Hills, ranked No. 24 by the Orange County Register, dropped to 3-3 and 0-1.
It was El Modena’s second victory this season over a higher-ranked opponent.
El Modena was practically perfect. The Vanguards made big plays, they controlled the clock, and they didn’t beat themselves with a bunch of unnecessary penalties.
They threw down the gauntlet by scoring on their first possession of both halves to take a 14-0 lead.
After Trabuco scored with 69 seconds left in the third quarter to close the gap, the Vanguards responded with a touchdown on their ensuing possession.
Apart from a missed point-after, it was basically a night of rising to the occasion in the league opener.
Perhaps no one rose more visibly than El Modena quarterback Ethan Sorenson. The junior completed 13 of 16 passes for 136 yards, and ran 18 times for 112 yards.
El Modena coach Matt Mitchell called the victory “huge, a big confidence builder.”
“Trabuco played to our expectations,” Mitchell said. “What we saw on film is what we got. I think we played a little above our expectations. We played pretty well tonight. We played together as a team, played 48 minutes coming off the bye week. It was good to come out and execute and play well.”
Sorenson scored on runs of two and 14 yards. His first TD gave El Mo a 14-0 lead with 5 minutes 42 seconds left in the third quarter and capped an 11-play, 68-yard drive that included only one pass – for a one-yard loss.
Sorenson rushed for 42 yards on the drive.
On first-and-goal at the 1, it took four plays for El Modena to score.
“Everyone was juiced,” Sorenson said afterward, noting this was the key series of the game. “We knew we had the power to drive and score again.”
After Trabuco cut the lead in half on Tristan Zale’s eight-yard run, El Modena showed its resiliency with a 72-yard drive in 12 plays. Sorenson scored from 14 with 7:17 remaining.
The only scoring in the first half came on El Modena’s first offensive possession. The Vanguards went 93 yards in 13 plays. Sorenson completed all six of his passes on the drive to account for 47 yards.
He also totaled three runs for 16 yards, including 12 yards on a QB draw to give ElMo a first down at the 12.
Two plays later, Nathan De la Vega scored from four yards out. A penalty on the point-after kick set up De la Vega for a two-point conversion with 1:28 left in the first quarter. The drive consumed almost nine minutes of the clock.
The game marked the return of Zale, who had missed a couple of weeks with a broken hand. Zale had moments of brilliance, for sure, as he scrambled in the backfield to keep plays alive, and as he showed off his arm. The senior completed 19 of 29 passes for 223 of Trabuco’s 299 total yards.