The Orange County football season is young.
Enough games have been played, though, to provide plenty of information about trends in county football …
Two teams that looked good coming into the season but are even better than that are La Habra and Los Alamitos.
Junior quarterback DJ Mitchell at La Habra showed massive potential as a freshman, so it’s no surprise that the dual-threat athlete is playing well and is adding scholarship offers from the top college programs every other day. The Highlanders defense is very good. La Habra, which is 3-0 and has climbed to No. 13 in the Orange County Top 25, had an established junior receiver in Blake Rogers, but the development of junior Bryce Vasquez as another standout receiver makes the Highlanders offense even more dangerous.
Los Alamitos, which jumped from No. 10 in last week’s county rankings to No. 6 this week, is 4-0 after an impressive 41-21 win over Serra of Gardena last week. A veteran coach at Los Alamitos said that Griffins senior Lenny Ibarra is the best player he has coached since Matt Grootegoed at Mater Dei – Grootegoed is the best football player yours truly has covered these past 35 (or something) years. Ibarra primarily plays safety but lines up just about anywhere, is the team’s leading receiver and he returns kicks and punts and kicks field goals and punts.
Cypress might be much better than last season when it finished 2-9. The Centurions, who otherwise have had some fine seasons in recent years, have started 3-0. They get a good test Friday when they play at 3-0 Torrance.
Orange County No. 16 Trabuco Hills is 2-0 with wins over two good teams, Huntington Beach 20-19 and St. Pius X-St. Matthias 29-20. The Mustangs have three good nonleague challenges coming, versus El Toro, Brea Olinda and Corona del Mar before starting play in the outstanding Delta League that also has Capistrano Valley, Cypress, El Modena, Tustin and Western in it.
Coach Dan O’Shea might have St. Margaret’s on the upswing in his third season in charge of Tartans football. They are 2-0 with an interesting game coming up Friday against Fountain Valley.
No. 19 Dana Hills is 3-0. The Dolphins’ 30-14 win over No. 23 El Modena two weeks ago looked even better after El Modena beat No. 25 Newport Harbor 21-17 last week. Dana Hills senior running back Radley Geiss, All-Foxtrot League first team last season, has rushed for 432 yards and senior linebacker Thompson Foulger, last year’s Foxtrot defensive player of the year, has 20 solo tackles and an interception.
No. 24 Aliso Niguel is 2-0 after wins over Beckman and Chino by a combined score of 90-16. Wolverines senior quarterback Carter Vestermark has completed 68 percent of his passes, is averaging 290 passing yards a game and has eight touchdown passes with no interceptions.
Mission Viejo senior quarterback Luke Fahey is among the early leaders for Orange County offensive player of the year. In three games against top competition Fahey has thrown for county-high 877 yards with 10 touchdowns. He committed to Ohio State.
Among the early leaders for O.C. defensive player of the year is Santa Margarita senior linebacker Dash Fifita, who was All-Orange County first team last season and a Trinity League defensive player of the year. He has 25 solo tackles and has that sideline-to-sideline speed and crashing hitting style reminiscent of Junior Seau. Fifita’s other brother is former Servite quarterback Noah Fifita who is the starter at Arizona where Dash Fifita is committed.
Another standout defensive player is Crean Lutheran senior defensive lineman James Carrington, who committed to Oklahoma. He is 6-3, 250 and very quick for his size.
Also incongruously quick for his size is Tustin junior defensive lineman Jeremiah Williams (6-1, 311). He plays running back, too, and is far more nimble than one would expect.
One of the more improved teams from Week 0 to Week 2 is Servite. The Friars did just about everything poorly in their season-opening 42-14 loss at Corona Centennial. They looked great in their past two games, wins of 56-35 over Murrieta Valley and 46-3 over Chaminade. (The win over Chaminade should have been 46-0, but an unfortunate timing/clock miscue made the first half a few seconds longer than it should have been, enabling Chaminade to kick a late field goal.)
The county’s other Ohio State-committed quarterback, junior Brady Edmunds, is off to a great start. Edmunds has thrown for 778 yards and four touchdowns. Orange County has some outstanding quarterback-receiver combos, and one of them is Edmunds and Troy Foster who has a county-leading 420 receiving yards on 23 receptions, five of those for touchdowns.
Marina is 2-1, with wins over Foothill 13-7 and Fountain Valley 23-10 and a 37-14 loss to 3-0 Long Beach Wilson. The Vikings’ defensive coordinator is Eric Johnson, who coached the Mater Dei defense during many championship years there. Johnson is an interesting guy – he played in the NFL, WFL, USFL, is No. 7 in career interceptions at Washington State with 12 picks, and appeared in a few football movies including North Dallas Forty and Semi-Tough.
One of the teams in great position to take a 5-0 record into its first league game is Calvary Chapel. The Eagles are 3-0 including a 27-14 win over Westminster last week and play Capistrano Valley Christian and Trinity Classical Academy before opening in the Sigma League against Valley.
Another Sigma League team off to a solid start is Estancia. The Eagles are 2-0, including a 29-21 win over Costa Mesa for their fourth straight win in the city rivals’ Battle for the Bell game on Aug. 29. Estancia players, coaches and cheerleaders then went to Newport Rib Co. that night for the annual feast enjoyed by the Bell game’s winner.
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