Surge Keys Servite Victory

FULLERTON —  For half a football game, it appeared at least one Sunset League team could compete with Servite this season.

Huntington Beach, shooting for a share of first place and some bragging rights against the new team in the league, took a commanding early lead and seemed to have a shot at upsetting the fourth-ranked Friars.

Not this time.

Thoroughly dominating the second half, Servite roared back behind a 250-yard passing performance by Eric Hannah to beat Huntington Beach, 36-17, in front of a Servite homecoming crowd of 3,500 at Cal State Fullerton.

The victory kept Servite (7-0-1, 5-0 in league) alone in first place with games remaining against Fountain Valley and Santa Ana.

Huntington Beach (4-4, 3-2) dropped into fourth place.

Huntington Beach took 14-0 and 17-6 first-half leads before Servite answered with a 90-yard touchdown pass play from Hannah to Julian Jones with 30 seconds left until halftime.

Servite Coach Larry Toner said he wasn’t overly concerned that his team trailed, 17-12, at the half. He said he was happy with the Friars’ offensive execution for the most part and didn’t feel the need to make a motivational halftime speech.

“It was nothing glorious,” Toner said. “I’d like to tell you I am the reincarnation of General MacArthur but I’m not.”

The Friars, however, seemed to gain new life after a long touchdown just before halftime.

Although their first drive of the second half was stopped by a fumble, their second--which included two fourth-down conversions--ended in a 23-yard touchdown pass from Hannah to Steve Correa.

The touchdown came on a third-and-22 play when Correa got behind the Oilers’ secondary and snatched the ball away from a defensive back.

After Hannah completed a pass to Correa for the two-point conversion, Servite led, 20-17.

From that point on, it was all Servite. Huntington Beach managed only 48 yards total offense in the second half and didn’t come close to scoring.

Huntington Beach quarterback Jonathan Wimbish was ineffective in the second half. Many of his problems stemmed from the hip pointer he suffered on the last play of the first half, but Servite’s defense didn’t give him much maneuvering room anyway.

Servite’s quarterback Hannah had an outstanding game. He completed seven of 10 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns.

Servite running back Elphamous Malbrue rushed 26 times for 176 yards, 117 of them in the second half and 52 of them on a touchdown run late in the fourth quarter that gave the Friars their final 36-17 lead.