Irvine football too strong in all areas against Laguna Hills

IRVINE — It was thorough, it was complete, it was everything you could hope for in a performance – if you were wearing green on Thursday.

Irvine ran the ball, passed the ball and slowed down Laguna Hills’ uptempo offense with a commanding defensive display. The Vaqueros turned in their best performance of the season with a 28-7 nonleague victory.

“They made more plays than we did,” Laguna Hills coach John Lester said. “They outplayed us offensively and defensively. They were more physical than we were and they played great.

“Offensively, we didn’t finish drives. Defensively, we couldn’t stop their running game.”

The time of possession was telling: Laguna Hills (2-2) held the ball only 13 minutes 49 seconds, compared to 34:11 for Irvine (3-1).

Quarterback Sina Saferzadeh was stellar for Irvine. The senior completed 12 of 22 passes for 163 yards with a touchdown and interception, and ran 14 times for 117 yards and a touchdown.

“They won the line of scrimmage all night long,” Lester said. “Their quarterback is an excellent runner and he made some good throws tonight. Their quarterback running the football was really the difference in the game.”

Saferzadeh’s five-yard scoring pass to Cole Reidel ended an 89-yard drive with 11 seconds left in the half for a 13-0 lead.

Saferzadeh’s six-yard scoring run on the first play of the fourth quarter made it 19-0, and his two-point conversion pass to Smith Spivey made it 21-0.

Irvine was outstanding almost from the outset. The Vaqueros were turned away on their first possession after driving from their 20 to the Laguna Hills 9, but such setbacks were rare.

Next possession, they drove 51 yards in 12 plays to find paydirt. How good was the drive? On third-and-11, Saferzadeh passed 12 yards to Enzo Cahoon for a first down. Seamus Hoffman scored from seven yards on the next play.

It was the first of two scores by Hoffman, who ran 18 times for 82 yards despite nursing a bruised hand. He also scored with 2:26 remaining, a TD that answered Laguna Hills’ only sustained drive.

The Hawks scored with 7:12 remaining when sophomore quarterback Jaxson Vanderbeek completed a 66-yard drive with a seven-yard run to pull within 21-7.

Khryzopher Entrala carried the bulk of the Laguna Hills offense. The senior rushed 17 times for 95 yards, and Vanderbeek carried 14 for 59. He completed nine of 18 passes for 54 yards with an interception.

For Irvine, Cahoon caught four passes for 41 yards, while Spivey caught two for 65.

Because of injuries, Irvine rotated a number of players through the line. Offensively, the Vaqueros leaned heavily on Kota Sashimi, Nick Hasegawa, Donny Brannon, Cevin Blanco, and Jacob Melville. Defensively, the numbers included Nick Gatica, Mason Pruce, Michael Saldivar, Cole Reichel, and Cameron Galatioto.

“We’ve lost three players since (the 7-0 Portola loss in Week 1) and we’ve had guys really make a conscious effort to step up and improve,” Irvine coach Tom Ricci said. “Our goal has always been to run the football.

“We knew, defensively, our goal was to shut down their quarterback because he’s an athlete. Every game we watched, he takes off running and he’s a threat. Defensive coordinator Thomas MacLarin has done a fantastic job. Our defense is ‘bend but don’t break,’ and he’s done a great job with it.”