SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — The Mater Dei football players exchanged hugs, laughs and breathed a sigh of relief after their football game against JSerra on Friday.
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Mater Dei avoided its first three-game losing streak since 2011 with a dominant 41-7 win over JSerra in the Trinity League game at JSerra High.
The Monarchs (5-2, 1-1) entered Friday on a two-game losing streak, the first time it has lost back-to-back games since 2013.
“It’s nice to get back on the winning track, no doubt,” Mater Dei coach Raul Lara said. “It’s just a matter of us sticking together, executing, minimizing our mistakes and if we do that, I know we’re a good football team. We had to go through some things. In the long run, hopefully those two losses we experienced are going to make us better.”
Mater Dei’s defense was excellent again and held its opponent to 14 points or fewer for the fourth time this season. Linebacker Dailon Clanton had three sacks and blocked a field goal. The New Mexico commit had five quarterback hurries in the first half.
“We knew we had to come out and show the world that Mater Dei is not over,” Clanton said. “We are climbing back up to the top. That’s what the defense, offense, all of us put together did today and showed the world.”
The Monarchs held JSerra (4-3, 0-2) to negative rushing yards and held the Lions under 150 yards of total offense.
Mater Dei’s offense, which hadn’t scored over 10 points in three consecutive games, had its best game of the season. Freshman quarterback Paytyn Guess threw for a career-high 203 yards with two touchdowns. His previous career-high was 165 yards which he set last week in a 14-7 loss to Santa Margarita.
Lara shared play calling duties with assistant coach Randy Wright for the first time this season.
“New offensive coordinator Coach Randy had a big part in this, calling some big plays,” Guess said. “We had missed opportunities but my receivers made big plays and that was a big part in how I played tonight.”
“We’re just evolving and playing better,” Lara said. “Not just players but also staff. I think the results we had tonight indicate that. We need to get better as a coaching group and as an offensive group. I think we are accomplishing that.”
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Mater Dei could not have asked for a better start to the game and jumped to a 21-point lead in the first quarter. On its opening possession, Asir Nembhard completed a 7-play, 63-yard scoring drive with a 27-yard touchdown to give the Monarchs a 7-0 lead.
After an interception with a big return by UCLA commit Michael Davis, Nembhard ran for an 18-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 14-0.
Late in the first quarter, Guess threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jaylen Grier to give the Monarchs a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Mater Dei went on a 6-play, 92-yard scoring drive late in the second quarter capped by a 14-yard pass from Guess to freshman Tristan Brown to give Mater Dei a 27-0 lead at halftime.
The Monarchs opened the second half with a 9-play, 63-yard scoring drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by backup quarterback Russell Sekona.
Ace Leutele returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown to give the Monarchs a 41-0 lead midway through the third quarter.
JSerra quarterback Hayes Cloutier was under pressure consistently but still threw for 165 yards. Grayson Matvay led the Lions with 69 yards on six receptions.
Bo Argenal and Godschoice Eboigbodin each had sacks for JSerra. Jack Hilgenberg threw a touchdown pass to Rhett Gabriel in the fourth quarter for the Lions.
Ezekiel Su’a had an interception for Mater Dei’s defense. Matamagi Uiagalelei and Davis had multiple tackles for a loss for the Monarchs.
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