In a extremely anticipated duel of the Southland’s prime quarterbacks, Makena Cook dinner threw three landing passes to maintain the Orange Lutheran flag soccer workforce unbeaten with a 20-13 victory over Trinity League rival Santa Margarita on Tuesday evening.
Cook dinner accomplished 9 of 11 throws within the first half, together with touchdowns of 21 and 53 yards to receiver Julia Oberholtzer — the second on a slant over the center to place the Lancers (18-0, 2-0) up 13-7 with simply over two minutes left earlier than intermission.
“Makena and I have practiced that play over and over and we were locked in tonight,” mentioned Oberholtzer, who additionally performs lacrosse. “I was getting open, she was finding me.”
Cook dinner and the offense gained the sport, however the Lancers’ protection saved it by selecting off three passes by Santa Margarita quarterback Madi Lam, the final by cornerback Josie Anderson in the long run zone for a touchback with 33 seconds left.
“It was a stressful game on defense,” Anderson mentioned. “I was nervous because I knew how good Santa Margarita was. On that final play I saw both their inside and outside receivers go long so I knew I had to play in the middle. The throw wasn’t as much of a line drive as it could’ve been, I broke on the ball and it was perfect timing.”
Cook dinner linked on 5 of six passes on Orange Lutheran’s first drive of the second half and after a five-yard scoring toss she discovered Brooklyn Vanderkallen for a vital one-point conversion to offer the Lancers a seven-point lead with 19 minutes left.
The Eagles (11-3, 1-1) gained two first downs on the following drive earlier than Anderson intercepted an underthrown ball on the one-yard line.
Lam accomplished 4 straight passes to receiver Mackenzie Younger and two extra to Megan Zimmerman to maneuver the ball to the Orange Lutheran five-yard line, however linebacker AJ Hendrix intercepted a go on the objective line to maintain the Lancers, ranked No. 1 within the Southern Part and state rankings, forward with 4:50 remaining.
Orange Lutheran went for it on fourth and three at its personal 37 with 1:16 left to ice the sport, however Cook dinner received pressured and Younger intercepted a go and returned it to the Lancers’ 26. Lam ran for six yards on the Eagles’ first play, establishing Anderson’s game-sealing takeaway.
Lam discovered Fiona Agius over the center on fourth and objective from the ten to place Santa Margarita on prime 7-0 and scrambled to her proper to throw a dart to Avery Finneran within the nook of the tip zone from 5 yards out to make it 13-13 with 4 seconds left within the first half.
“Both sides played really well and we’ll face them again at home so hopefully we can win that one,” Younger mentioned. “Madi is really good on her feet, she can extend plays and when she came to us she took the time to get to know all of her receivers.”
Santa Margarita receiver Fiona Agius celebrates a landing catch within the first half towards Orange Lutheran.
(Steve Galluzzo / For the Occasions)
As a sophomore sensation at Esperanza final fall, Lam handed Cook dinner and the Lancers an extra time defeat of their remaining contest — a loss that has fueled Orange Lutheran’s bid for perfection this season. Lam transferred to Santa Margarita on Aug. 20 and made her debut within the Eagles’ fifth sport Sept. 16 versus Tesoro. In her first seven video games at her new college she handed for 26 touchdowns with just one interception, nevertheless on Saturday, Santa Margarita suffered back-to-back losses to Corona del Mar and Huntington Seashore on the El Toro Match to drop to No. 8 within the part and tenth in California.
Santa Margarita hosts JSerra on Thursday; Orange Lutheran travels to Mater Dei.
“Our flag-pulling tonight wasn’t great but I was proud of the way the girls stepped up when they needed to,” Orange Lutheran coach Kristen Sherman mentioned. “It was bend but don’t break. Our league has greatly improved this year; that’s a good team with a good quarterback and they made us better.”
