Islanders Begin Isabella Era with Last-Second Win

It's unlikely that Tony Isabella will forget his first game as head coach of the Coronado High football team.

Robby Weissenfels kicked a 29-yard field goal with no time remaining Saturday night to give the visiting Islanders a 16-13 victory over St. Margaret’s in San Juan Capistrano.

Isabella, who made his debut as successor to longtime football coach Bud Mayfield, appears to know how to run the two-minute drill, and in only half a minute.

After a St. Margaret's field goal from 27 yards out tied the game at 13-13 with 30 seconds remaining, Coronado was able to drive down the field quickly to set up the winning field goal, aided in part by a late-hit call.

The key play came when senior quarterback Austin Denson hit wide receiver Hunter Corpus on a 40-yard completion inside the Tartans 15 with three seconds to play, setting up Weissenfels' game-winner.

Coronado took a 6-0 lead in the opening quarter after recovering a St. Margaret's fumble and going 25 yards in three plays, capped by Denson's 1-yard quarterback sneak for the score. The Tartans scored in the second period for a 7-6 halftime lead and extended it to 10-6 in the third quarter before the Islanders moved ahead 13-10 on a 13-yard scoring run by Charles Westbrook later in the period.

The last-minute field goals by both teams were the only points in the final quarter.

Denson connected on 14 of 26 passes for 170 yards, with Corpus accounting for 115 of those yards. Westbrook also surpassed the century mark, rushing for 106 yards.

St. Margaret’s coach Rod Baltau was impressed with the Islanders' defense.

“They were aggressive, pinned their ears back and smacked us in the mouth. We didn’t do a good job adjusting to that,” he told OC Varsity.com.