Trabuco Hills too much for Oilers

HUNTINGTON BEACH — The Huntington Beach High football team drove the ball down the field, perhaps surprising visiting Trabuco Hills early in the teams’ Sea View League showdown Thursday night.

Then, an interception at the Mustangs’ three-yard line. The rest of the half? Six Oilers punts.

A game after Huntington Beach shocked defending league champ Foothill, the Oilers came back down to earth. And Trabuco Hills showed why it was considered a favorite to win league this year after posting a 51-10 victory.

“We’ve got to be more consistent on offense and we’ve got to be more consistent in our pass coverage,” Huntington Beach Coach Eric Lo said. “Those are two things right away that are glaring.”

They were against Trabuco Hills (6-1, 2-0), ranked No. 3 in the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division poll. The No. 10 Oilers (4-3, 1-1) were burned all night by Mustangs senior quarterback A.J. Josue.

Josue can run; he had 89 yards rushing Friday night. But, with senior running back Dylan Buononato out, the Mustangs also showed they can pass.

Josue threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns, two of those to Ethan Hall. Trabuco Hills senior Shane Decillo did also rush for 78 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Coming into the game, the Mustangs as a team had just two passing touchdowns all season.

“We committed to take away the run, and it kind of left us in [tough] spots,” Lo said. “We didn’t anticipate them throwing the ball as well as they did, especially him. That wasn’t their starting quarterback. He’s just been a runner, but he ended up throwing the ball, and we did him some favors by not identifying routes.”

Huntington Beach was unable to move the ball for much of the game as well, although starting senior quarterback Sean Guite (109 yards passing) was victimized by a number of drops. The Mustangs also kept senior running back Jack Dilbeck (64 yards) in check for much of the contest until he moved the Oilers downfield late in the fourth quarter out of the Wildcat offense made popular by the Miami Dolphins.

Guite finished the drive by running in from five yards out, capping the scoring. Senior Kaller Roemer also had 105 all-purpose yards for Huntington Beach.

Dominic Capone recovered a fumble for the Oilers with 2:26 left in the half. But it was another three-and-out for the Oilers, who went into the intermission down, 27-0.

“We can’t hold our heads because we’re still not in a bad spot,” Lo said. “Trabuco, coming into this, was the best team in our league. We’ve got to rebound from this. We’ve got to play Northwood tough next week, and then we’ve got El Toro and Woodbridge, and we’re capable of winning all three of those games. Our goal is to be in the playoffs. This hurts our chances for a league championship, which is what we were hoping for, but we’ve got to play better to be in that spot.

“But we still want to make the playoffs.”