Gauchos Hope to Build on an Upsetting Trend

Mark McElroy is three weeks into his first season as football coach at Saddleback College and already has been part of two of the biggest upsets in Orange County this decade.

Twice his Gauchos have faced the 17th-ranked team in the nation--Mt. San Antonio and El Camino--and have come away with stirring victories.

The Gauchos’ other game was a 17-point loss to unranked Orange Coast.

“It’s been interesting,” McElroy said. “We’ve played really hard. We have eight returning sophomores, eight, that’s it. We’ve played really well and I’m pleased with our performance, but we still have a long way to go.”

Saddleback hosts Long Beach at 7 tonight in a Mission Conference game, but this week the Gauchos hope the nation’s 17th-ranked team wins because that is where they stand, according to the J.C. Grid-Wire.

Long Beach was ranked 11th in the nation but was upset by Fullerton, 26-7, last week and fell out of the top 25.

Saddleback is coming off a 14-7 upset of El Camino, which came into the game averaging 506 yards but was limited to 175.

Saddleback held the ball for slightly more than 40 minutes.

“Our plan was to play great defense and [not] let them have the football,” McElroy said. “We didn’t put as many points on the board as we would have liked, but we didn’t give them the football and that was critical.

“We didn’t make mental mistakes. Three of the touchdowns Orange Coast had were because of mental mistakes. Guys just ended up not being in the right spots.”

But there was another difference between the Orange Coast and El Camino games, according to sophomore defensive lineman Tobey Minier, who is from Trabuco Hills High.

Saddleback forced five turnovers and scored three touchdowns in four minutes in beating Mt. SAC, 26-23, in the opening week.

But Orange Coast scored five first-half touchdowns and went on to beat Saddleback, 42-25.

“We had too much confidence,” said Minier, who has 15 tackles this season. “We didn’t think we had to work as hard.”

But the Gauchos had a great week of practice before the El Camino game and held the Warriors scoreless until late in the game.

“Last year, we played hard,” Minier said, “but in the third and fourth quarters we didn’t pull together as a family. This year, we’re doing a good job of that.”

MURPHY HONORED

Fullerton’s victory over Long Beach was one of the best performances Coach Gene Murphy has seen in his seven years at the college.

The Hornets, despite the loss of two starting running backs to injuries earlier in the season, dominated on the ground in beating the Vikings for the first time since 1987.

Andrew Rea ran for 133 yards and Matt Gogan had 122 and three touchdowns as the Hornets held the ball for nearly 43 minutes.

Fullerton (1-2) takes on No. 21 Cerritos (2-1) at 7:30 tonight at Cal State Fullerton; however, Murphy will be in Grand Forks, N.D., where he will be inducted into the University of North Dakota’s athletic hall of fame.

Murphy was a player, an assistant and head coach at North Dakota.

ANOTHER UPSET?

Orange Coast (2-1) has a chance to pull the upset of the season today when the Pirates host Palomar (3-0), which is ranked No. 1 in nation by the J.C. Grid-Wire.

Greg Cicero, a former Servite High standout, has passed for 464 yards and six touchdowns for Palomar, but the defense has been the more impressive story.

The Comets are tops in the 12-team conference and third in the state in defense, giving up only 186 yards a game.

In other games: Santa Ana (1-2) is at El Camino (2-1) at 7 p.m., and Pasadena (2-1) takes on Golden West (0-3) at OCC at 7 p.m.