Mission Viejo Remains Unbeaten by Upending El Toro

MISSION VIEJO — Mission Viejo’s running game laid the groundwork for Thursday night’s 17-13 victory over El Toro before about 3,500 at Mission Viejo High.

But it was quarterback Jake Fitch’s only two pass completions for positive yardage that decided the Diablos’ first victory over El Toro in Bill Denny’s four years as head coach.

Fitch, whose only completion in his first five attempts was for negative yardage, hit receiver Dustin Crane with a perfect eight-yard pass on a slant pattern to give Mission Viejo a 17-13 lead with 8 minutes 51 seconds remaining in the game. Crane had El Toro defensive back Julian White draped all over him, but Fitch still found room for the completion on the second-down play.

“Our passing game was killing us early,” Denny said. “But there are certain times in the game when the kids have to perform and fortunately we did there.”

With Mission Viejo (3-0) clinging to a 17-13 lead, Fitch completed a 15-yard sideline pass to receiver Nick Gilliam on third and eight from the Diablo 21. If the pass had been incomplete, El Toro would have probably had the ball at midfield with five minutes left. As it turned out, Mission Viejo got two more first downs and finally gave El Toro the ball with two minutes left and 80 yards to travel.

However, it should be noted that Mission Viejo running back Mike Chavis nearly gave El Toro the ball with much better field position and much more time on the clock. As he bolted up the middle for a first down at midfield, Chavis lost the ball but somehow found it before two El Toro defenders did.

“I had to find it really quickly,” Chavis said. “I felt lost out there.”

Chavis’ fumble was about the only mistake he and fullback Scott Carr made all night. Chavis rushed 26 times for 117 yards and one touchdown and Carr carried 18 times for 108 yards. When it was over, Mission Viejo had run off 57 plays to El Toro’s 33.

“They just couldn’t stop our running game,” Chavis said. “Our line was too big. We thought coming in that we could control the line of scrimmage.”

So did Denny, but he wasn’t so sure El Toro thought the same way.

“We were platooning and they weren’t,” Denny said. “I’m sure they were anticipating us getting tired. Our kids had to suck it up and they did.”

El Toro (1-2) couldn’t put any sustained drives together, but the Chargers scored twice on long runs by junior halfback Sam Moore. In the first quarter, Moore lined up as a wingback and took a handoff around left end for 72 yards. He broke free again early in the third quarter from Mission Viejo’s 49 to make it 13-7 El Toro. One play earlier, Crane caught a pass behind the line of scrimmage and fumbled into the hands of El Toro linebacker Brady Benson.

Mission Viejo trimmed the lead to 13-10 on Gilliam’s 27-yard field goal with five minutes left in the third quarter. The winning drive started on Mission Viejo’s 19 and took 11 plays to complete. The first 10 plays were runs, six of them by Carr for 53 yards.