St. Margaret’s football defeats Orange with mix of creativity and toughness – Orange County Register

ORANGE — The St. Margaret’s football team had a few ideas on how to keep their offense on the field against Orange on Friday night.
The Panthers helped the Tartans out as well.
St. Margaret’s held on for a 28-22 win at El Modena High, taking advantage of their quick start and an undisciplined finish by Orange in the Orange Coast League contest.
Orange (2-4, 1-1) cut the lead to 20-14 on a 4-yard touchdown run by Ardwon Morris with 4:55 left in the third quarter.
The Panthers appeared to force a three-and-out on the next series, but an Orange player was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after a sack and the drive continued for the Tartans.
St. Margaret’s (2-4, 1-1) later faced a third-and-22 on the drive, but quarterback Max Ruff found Will Viola for a 28-yard gain down the sideline.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Tartans capped the drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Ruff to Russell Frye, extending the lead to 28-14.
Ruff went 23-for-33 for 250 yards with three touchdown passes and another rushing, while Frye finished with nine catches for 134 yards and two touchdowns.
“I have the utmost confidence in my line and my receivers to make the plays that we need to to move the chains,” Ruff said.
The Tartans were unsuccessful on their second on-sides kick of the game and the Panthers took advantage of the short field, cutting the deficit to 28-22 with 8:22 left on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Hype Grand to Wesley Lundell, followed by a 2-point conversion by Morris.
Orange again appeared to stop St. Margaret’s on third and long on the ensuing drive, but the Panthers were called for roughing Ruff after he ran out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage with 4:46 left.
St. Margaret’s then killed another 3:20 off the clock before Nathaniel Kim missed a 45-yard field goal.
The Panthers got the ball back at their 20-yard line, but could only get to midfield before time ran out.
“Defensively tonight, I thought our guys played heroic,” St. Margaret’s first-year coach Dan O’Shea said. “Heroic against a team that’s much bigger than us, much more physical but, man, our kids fought like Tartans do and that was really important to us tonight.”
The Tartans scored on the opening drive of the game, going for it on fourth-and-3 and scoring when Ruff found Frye for a 14-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
Kim then covered his own on-sides kick at the Orange 48 and Ruff capitalized five plays later when he dropped back to pass, scrambled away from a sack and scored on a 21-yard run down the sideline for a 14-0 lead with 5:03 left in the first quarter.
“We weren’t going to give them the ball.” O’Shea said. “It was our offense’s job to keep possession of it and then play keepaway, and see if we can take advantage and steal one, two or three extra possessions.”
St. Margaret’s quickly found out just how dangerous Orange’s offense can be behind Morris, who finished with 184 rushing yards on 25 carries with two touchdowns and a pair of two-point conversions.
Morris used a 28-yard run to give the Panthers first-and-goal at the 7-yard line and he scored shortly afterward on a 1-yard run before converting the two-point conversion to make it 14-8 with 9:02 left in the first half.
The Tartans answered back on their next drive as Matt Arena caught a pass out of the backfield and spun into the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown. A bad snap spoiled the point after and the lead was 20-8 with 5:43 left in the opening half.

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