Santa Margarita Thumps Long Beach Jordan, 56-0

With Saddleback Stadium bursting at the seams with screaming Eagles fans, Santa Margarita Catholic's football team, ranked No. 3 in the county by the Orange County Register despite starting only two seniors on offense and returning only two starters on defense, had a lot to prove Friday night.

Mission accomplished.

Putting on an eye-popping defensive clinic that included five forced turnovers, eight sacks, four interceptions and a cherry-on-top pick six from RJ Mazolewski, Santa Margarita dismantled visiting Jordan of Long Beach, 56-0.

Leading the way defensively for the Eagles was 6-foot-3, 258-pound senior defensive end Chris Frost. The Eagles' bruising right end racked up 4 1/2 sacks and, alongside Sean Donegan (two sacks) from the left end, gave Jordan quarterback Hudson Romain fits all evening.

Romain managed to complete half of his 14 pass attempts, but for only 64 yards, and by the end of his nightmare evening, he had found four blue shirts for interceptions, including two by junior corner Connor O'Brien and another by junior outside linebacker Sammy Gibbs.

"Our offensive line, we hear about them all the time. Going up against them everyday, it just helps us get better," Frost said. "We probably won't see a better offensive line than them all season."

Jordan's offensive line had no answers for Santa Margarita's four-man defensive front, finishing with negative seven yards on the ground.

"Chris Frost; he dominated," Santa Margarita coach Harry Welch said. "Sean Donegon and the tackles, we didn't stunt much, so they were pretty active."

By the time Ryan Wolpin had run in the first of what would be two scores on the ground for the junior tailback at the 5:56 mark of the second quarter, the writing was already on the wall at 28-0, a lead the Eagles would take into the locker room.

Wolpin (10 carries, 78 yards) added a 39-yard touchdown romp early in the second half and his fullback, Alex Suchesk, mopped up the closing frames, finishing with 49 yards in seven carries and two scores of his own.

Santa Margarita's young offense performed wonderfully behind its huge offensive line, turning in 205 yards and six scores on the ground and 383 yards total, including 20 first downs.

"I didn't know how we were going to perform," Welch said. "We're fairly talented, but we're awfully young. So it was very important [that we started the season strong]. We needed to get past this."

Johnny Stanton, Santa Margarita's dual-threat junior signal caller, sparked the Eagles' offense on its first drive, hooking up with Cory Mendoza on a perfectly-placed, 36-yard fade route that set up a Stanton plunge at the goal line for an early 7-0 lead.

Stanton made it 14-0 all by himself a minute into the second quarter with a 40-yard designed roll-out keeper in which the nimble-footed quarterback juked a Jordan defender out of his socks before lunging across the goal line with two more defenders draped all over him.

For his efforts, Stanton finished with 51 yards rushing to complement an 8-of-13 passing night that tallied 153 yards, including a five-yard touchdown to sophomore wideout Sean Modster.

"It meant the world to us [to get a win]," Frost said. "With a good start, now we're able to just keep it going."

The Eagles' road gets decidedly bumpier next Friday, Sept. 9, when Rancho Santa Margarita cross-town rival Tesoro, No. 4 in the county and a 35-21 winner over Newhall Hart Friday night, comes calling for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Saddleback College.

Jordan (0-1) heads to Granada Hills next Friday for a showdown with Kennedy.

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GAME STATISTICS

                              1      2      3     4     Totals

Jordan                   0      0      0     0  --   0

Santa Margarita    7     21   21     7   --  56                               

First Downs:  Jordan 3, Santa Margarita 20

Rushing Yards: Jordan -7, Santa Margarita 205

Passing Yards: Jordan 64, Santa Margarita 178

Total Yards: Jordan 57; Santa Margarita 383

Turnovers: Jordan 5; Santa Margarita 2

Penalties/Yards: Jordan 6/36; Santa Margarita 5/50

SCORING

1st Quarter

Santa Margarita --  Johnny Stanton 1 run; John McGrory kick, 3:11 

2nd Quarter

Santa Margarita --  Stanton 40 run; McGrory kick, 11:48

Santa Margarita --  Sean Modster 5 pass from Stanton; McGrory kick, 10:46

Santa Margarita --  Ryan Wolpin 1 run; McGrory kick, 5:56  

3rd Quarter

Santa Margarita --  Wolpin 39 run; McGrory kick, 10:35

Santa Margarita --  RJ Mazolewski 25 interception return; McGrory kick, 8:28

Santa Margarita --  Alex Suchesk 2 run; McGrory kick, :43.9 

4th Quarter

Santa Margarita --  Suchesk 14 run; McGrory kick, 2:04