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Strong all-around effort carries Orange Lutheran football to victory over Servite

October 26, 2024

COSTA MESA — Orange Lutheran came in well prepared for its Trinity League football showdown against Servite on Friday at Orange Coast College.

Orange Lutheran never stopped applying pressure on defense and quarterback T.J. Lateef led the offense with three touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown as the Lancers went on to a 38-0 victory over the Friars.

The Lancers (7-2, 3-1), who are ranked No. 3 in the county, take on first-place Mater Dei (8-0, 4-0) in the final regular-season game on Friday, Nov. 1.

After the Monarchs’ 59-14 victory over St. John Bosco on Friday, the Lancers are in a tie for second place with the Braves (8-1, 3-1).

Orange Lutheran coach Rod Sherman said the victory was the Lancers’ “most complete game of the season.”

“We’re excited to go play Mater Dei next week,” Sherman said. “We know they’re an unbelievable football team. We’ve played a lot of Top 20 teams in the country and we feel like we’re a Top 20 team in the country. We’re going to be ready to go next week.”

Mater Dei and the Braves are the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation, respectively.

The Friars (6-3, 1-3), who are ranked No. 4 in the county, play No. 6 Santa Margarita (3-6, 0-4) next week.

“I thought our defense was physical at every level,” Sherman said. “We really got after the pocket and won at the line of scrimmage defensively. Those guys played really, really hard.”

The Lancers forced the Friars into third-and-long situations in all five of the Friars’ drives in the first half.

Those drives resulted in a punt, a stop on fourth down followed by three more punts.

On one first-half drive, the Friars had a first-and-10 on the Lancers 17.

The Lancers allowed a yard on first down, forced consecutive incompletions in the end zone and then stopped the Friars on fourth down.

Orange Lutheran took over and drove 91 yards, capping the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Lateef to Chris Flores, to give the Lances a 7-0 lead.

After a Servite punt in the second quarter, the Lancers took over on their 11 with one minute, 47 seconds left.

The Lancers executed a textbook two-minute drill, exhibiting excellent clock management, driving 89 yards in 12 plays.

Lateef capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Ia, giving the Lancers a 14-0 lead at the half.

With Orange Lutheran leading 17-0 early in the third quarter, the Friars gambled and went for it on fourth-and-3 from their 38.

Linebacker Talanoa Ili tackled Quad Carr for an 8-yard loss and the Lancers took advantage of the short field when Lateef hit Nico Bland for an 11-yard touchdown, upping the lead to 24-0.

The game was played with a running clock for most of the fourth quarter.

“I believe that we have a very skilled defense and that our game plan was just to rally to the ball and just stop the run,” side defensive lineman Jireh Moe, one of the Lancers’ anchors on defense. “We stop the run first, then once we stop the run it was smooth sailing.”

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Orange County Register

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Strong all-around effort carries Orange Lutheran football to victory over Servite

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