TEMEUCLA — Mission Viejo football defeated Chaparral on the road Friday, holding off a late push to secure the victory.
The No. 4 Diablos turned an interception late in the first half into a touchdown and, behind quarterback Luke Fahey and running back Davonte Curtis, earned a 36-21 nonleague victory over the No. 6 Pumas in the Inland Empire.
Trailing 21-7 in the second quarter and inspired by Camren Williams’ block of a 43-yard field goal attempt, the Pumas went on an 11-play march to the Diablos’ 16-yard line. Safety Ryder Brown picked off quarterback Dane Weber’s pass in the end zone for a touchback, and the Diablos gashed the Chaparral defense in four plays for a touchdown with 14 seconds remaining for a 28-7 lead.
“It was a gut-wrencher,” Chaparral coach Andrew Ramer said.
Well-traveled Mission Viejo (5-1), which has played four games on the road this season, rebounded from a 25-14 defeat to McCallie in Chattanooga, Tenn., and avoided back-to-back losses on the field for the first time since opening 0-2 in 2014. That season, the Diablos won their next 12 games and were crowned CIF-Southern Section West Valley Division champions.
Mission Viejo coach Chad Johnson said the weary Diablos have a lot of fine-tuning to do to become a championship-caliber ballclub. They are grateful to have a contest at home Friday against Long Beach Poly.
“We’re a good team, but we’re not a great team,” Johnson told his squad, which turned aside three incursions by the Pumas deep into Mission Viejo territory and saw the Pumas wriggle out of several tackles for extra yardage.
Fahey completed 15 of 23 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two more scores. Receiver Jack Junker snagged four passes for 70 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and KJ Woodbury Jr. had a 38-yard touchdown reception among his three catches.
Curtis churned through initial contact with Pumas defenders for 98 tough yards on 14 carries.
“It’s all fixable, but it’s got to be fixed,” Johnson said. “If you watch our film, the mistakes have been repetitive. We’ve got to have players take it personally and get better. If a player has an excuse as to why he didn’t do something, that tells me he doesn’t think it’s his fault. They need to take ownership: ‘I screwed up, Coach, and I will fix it.’”
Still, Mission Viejo was able to solve problems caused by the Pumas, whose offense was averaging more than 500 yards per game, limiting them to 290 total yards.
Quarterback Dane Weber, who had 17 passing yards and two interceptions in the first half, connected on all 14 of his throws in the second half to finish with 166 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He added 85 rushing yards on 19 carries.
“I feel like we are going to watch film and we will really see that we missed some big-time plays,” Ramer said. “We didn’t execute on third downs to get them off the field, and they made some great plays. I can’t take anything away from them. But when you’re playing a caliber of school like that, you can’t make mistakes like that.
“We’re not going to get too high or too low. We have a brand-new season. League starts.”
The Pumas (2-3) open Big West Conference-Upper Division play next week at home against Vista Murrieta.
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