Football: Eagles too much for Uni
The Estancia High football team unveiled new uniforms at University on Friday. In the new unis the Eagles earned their first win against Uni in 17 years.
Coach Mike Bargas said the new away white jerseys with cardinal and gold numbering and lettering got the Eagles pumped up. They went out and won, 35-10, ending an eight-game losing streak to University.
“Whatever to motivate them,” Bargas said. “It doesn’t take much, but it worked.”
The Eagles (2-2) also stopped a two-game skid this year, and became the first team to beat University. They used long drives and big plays on offense, special teams and defense to ruin the Trojans’ bid to start 4-0 for the first time in eight years.
After Estancia fell behind, 3-0, on Nick Loveland’s 27-yard field goal late in the first quarter, the Eagles scored the next 35 points to run away with the nonleague game.
Dylan Laurent put Estancia ahead midway through the second quarter. He returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown, his second return for a score this season. With less than a minute left in the first half, quarterback Connor Brown hooked up with wide receiver Dalton O’Daly (four catches for 83 yards) on a 34-yard touchdown pass.
Brown, who completed 13 of 15 passes for 151 yards, added a second touchdown pass in the third quarter. The nine-yard score to receiver Jake Brown capped an impressive drive to start the second half. The Eagles went 90 yards in 21 plays, chewing up almost 10 minutes off the clock.
University’s defense had no answers for Estancia, which totaled 204 rushing yards, 78 belonging to Ronnie Urquiza. The Trojans’ defensive coordinator is Jeremy Osso, a Costa Mesa resident and former head coach at Costa Mesa High.
“It was bittersweet,” Bargas said of facing a former Battle for the Bell rival. “He wasn’t a really happy guy. I can understand. He’s a good guy and we’re friends. His daughter [Alexis] goes to Estancia.”
The Eagles scored twice more in the fourth quarter, on a 25-yard run by Laurent and on an 80-yard interception return by O’Daly. O’Daly, a defensive back, finished with two interceptions.
“It was a good game for us,” said Bargas, whose team knocked off a Pacific Coast League opponent for the first time since Estancia beat Woodbridge in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoffs in 2011. “In order to get some respect [as an Orange Coast League team], we have to play those bigger schools. We have one more nonleague game [at Ocean View] next week before we open league play at home [ against Calvary Chapel]. Hopefully we’ll be hitting on all cylinders by then.”