Santa Ana High’s football team defeated Costa Mesa 49-10 on Thursday, October 5 at home.
Senior Charles Hughes paced the Saints (6-2, 4-0 Orange Coast League), scoring five touchdowns and rushing for 147 yards on 17 carries as the team won its fourth in a row to stay undefeated in league play.
He scored in each of the first three quarters to put Santa Ana up big, his last being an 18-yarder to make the score 35-10 in the third.
“I felt pretty good, hitting my career high again in touchdowns,” Hughes said. “The O-line did their jobs. Things could have been sharper as far as the small things but it felt great. We just have to stay more disciplined as a team.”
Senior running back Gabriel Ramirez Flores scored a 16-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the Saints up 42-10 and senior Anthony Acosta added a 30-yard reception from Sergio Torres (16-17, 245 yards, 1 touchdown) to close out the scoring and the Mustangs (2-5, 1-2).
The Saints had 526 total yards of offense, consisting of 251 passing yards and 275 rushing yards.
“Happy with the result, not satisfied with the performance,” head coach Rory Schoonmaker said. “Let me put it that way, Costa Mesa came out, and they played physical and tough. But frankly, we didn’t put our best product on the field today. That’ll be evident to anybody who watched the game. We need to be better.”
“You know, I think the offensive line had a very good game,” he added. “We had to make some early adjustments to line schemes to make sure they were effective. Obviously, every week we play a new defense, they get even better, gaps are filled, blitz or stunts, twists. You got to kind of move and work those on the fly as they come in the game. So we made enough adjustments to be successful, we brought in the ball downhill.”
Sergio had a very good game in terms of reads,” Shoonmaker said of Torres. “He had a couple of uncharacteristic penalties that he doesn’t normally get cause he’s the smartest kid on the field. That being said very good game from him from an execution standpoint and a read standpoint. Charles (Hughes) obviously goes without saying, he ran the ball hard. I would love to not have to give him as many of those physical carries. I’d rather lighten that box up for him and let him work a little bit. But, I mean the kid runs hard and you know he lays it on the line every game.”
The Saints celebrate Homecoming with a contest against the Saddleback Roadrunners (0-7, 0-4) tonight at 7 p.m.
“My expectations are to have similar game but more sharp and dominant,” Hughes said. “We are confident coming into this game and believe we should come out with the win.”
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