El Toro Manhandles Aliso Niguel, 47-0

For the first quarter and a half Friday night, the match-up between a couple of one-loss high school football teams, Aliso Niguel and El Toro, with first place in the Sea View League up for grabs, looked as if it might come down to the final possession in the fourth quarter.

Over the next 11 minutes of play, however, any kind of anticipated drama became non-existent.

El Toro scored six touchdowns from the 5:15 mark of the second quarter to the 6:10 mark of the third quarter to bury a stunned Aliso Niguel squad, 47-0, before an overjoyed Chargers homecoming crowd of nearly 1,000 at Trabuco Hills High.

It was the fourth shutout of the season for the Chargers, who have outscored their first two Sea View League opponents, 115-6, and have allowed only 16 points in seven games since their opening week 23-21 loss to Huntington Beach of the Sunset League.

Against Aliso Niguel, the Chargers (7-1, 2-0 in league) needed only 11 offensive plays in the second quarter to score four touchdowns and seven plays to start the third quarter to score two more. During that stretch, the Wolverines (5-2, 1-1) had four three-and-out possessions, including two fourth-down offensive plays that failed.

The sudden power surge by El Toro, combined with the defensive collapse by Aliso Niguel, left both coaches shaking their heads — for completely different reasons.

“Go fast, go hard, score,” said a smiling Rob Frith, the Chargers coach. “We get the ball and as long as there’s time on the clock, we feel we have a chance to put the ball in the end zone. I am very proud of the way our kids played on our homecoming. They knew what was at stake — playing a division opponent, a league opponent, and also Top 10 in our division.”

A shell-shocked Kurt Westling, the Wolverines coach, said, “Things started falling apart and it kind of snowballed. The team let down a little coming out of the gate, and when they kept scoring, it took some steam out of our engine. El Toro played great. No excuses. It was just one of those things. Things didn’t go our way at all.”

The Chargers led 6-0 after their first possession thanks to a six-play, 79-yard drive capped by a one-yard touchdown pass from Conner Manning to Blake Murphy. Aliso Niguel marched back with a 12-play drive but it stalled at the Chargers' 31-yard line when Nathan Cole’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete.

Neither team could get much going after that as each had three possessions without making much headway. Aliso Niguel then was forced to punt from its own end zone and the Chargers took over at the Wolverines' 35. Two plays later, junior running back Jason Furnari took a draw and ran 21 yards for a touchdown to put El Toro ahead, 12-0.

Then it went something like this…

• Wolverines run three plays for seven yards and punt. Chargers take over and go 56 yards in three plays, scoring on a nine-yard pass from Manning to Cody White. 19-0.

• Wolverines gain nine yards but fumble on fourth-and-one. At the 46, Manning passes 39 yards to Alex Shoffeitt and Furnari runs the next seven. 26-0.

• Wolverines go three-and-out. Chargers take over at their 19 with 45 seconds before halftime. Four plays later, Manning passes 37 yards to White in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown with :03 left. 33-0.

• Third quarter, after fumbling the kickoff but stopping the Wolverines at their 15, the Chargers again score four plays later on a 35-yard run by Shoffeitt. 40-0.

• Finally, after another three-and-out and an 11-yard punt by the Wolverines, the Chargers need only three plays to go 34 yards, with Furnari scoring from 20 yards to complete the 41-point outburst.

Frith said the key to the game was showing a different side to the Chargers’ attack. “We had a feeling that they [Wolverines] would come out and try and stop the pass,” he said. “The thing is, we have a good weapon in the backfield in Jason Furnari. Teams have been loading the box, so we having success throwing the ball. This is the first team that’s tried to take away the pass, so we gave it to our best player.”

Furnari finished with a career-high 277 yards rushing on 19 carries and two touchdowns. That total included seven carries of 20 or more yards. His previous high school best was 115 yards. Before that, he said maybe it was in Pop Warner.

“I knew coming in that I was going to have to step up for my team,” Furnari said. “[The score] was a little surprising, but watching film on them, we knew they would drop their backers, and the draw left the field wide open and allowing me to run. It’s our fast-break offense. We work hard in practice. It’s all about speed.”

And as the Wolverines can attest, speed kills.

Next Friday, Aliso Niguel plays at Laguna Hills (6-0, 1-0) while El Toro plays at Capistrano Valley (1-5, 0-1). Both games start at 7 p.m.