LAGUNA HILLS — Coaches are constantly seeking bulletin board material from their opponents to motivate their teams during game week.
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Irvine’s coaches saw a social media post from a Laguna Hills player that said Irvine knew Laguna Hills was the better team.
Irvine didn’t appear to agree with that assessment and beat Laguna Hills 24-20 Friday at Laguna Hills High.
“Our big thing all week was we saw a social media post from their player saying, ‘Irvine knows we’re better than them,’ and we wanted to prove that we don’t know that,” Irvine coach Tom Ricci said. “We always tell our kids to never give bulletin board material and that was playing on loop all week for us. We had something to prove.”
Irvine (3-1) running back Seamus Hoffman ran for a career-high 202 yards on 25 carries and ran for a game-winning 60-yard touchdown with 1:35 left in the game.
“Without my offensive line, I’m not doing anything,” Hoffman said. “On that last run we knew they were coming. Blocks were made, I saw my opportunity and took it. I had pure determination. I wasn’t going down. I had to score that.”
Hoffman has set career-highs in rushing yards in back-to-back weeks. His previous career-high was 145 yards which he set last week in a win over Woodbridge.
Laguna Hills (3-1) got the ball back in the final minutes with a chance to drive for the lead. The Hawks drove inside Irvine’s 30-yard line, but Rhylan Pack intercepted a pass for Irvine to end the game.
The lead changed twice in the final three minutes. Laguna Hills quarterback Jaxson Vanderbeek ran for a 10-yard touchdown to give the Hawks a 20-18 lead with 3:04 left in the game. The touchdown run completed a 5-play, 80-yard scoring drive that was aided by two personal foul penalties on Irvine.
Irvine’s defense delivered in the second half and shut down Laguna Hills with the exception of the one scoring drive. The Vaqueros forced two consecutive three-and-outs in the third quarter and the Hawks didn’t get a first down until the final play of the third quarter.
Will Walters had three sacks for Irvine and multiple tackles for a loss in the run game. William Rudolph and Mason Pruce also had sacks for the Vaqueros.
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Irvine quarterback William Bowman threw for 123 yards with three touchdowns, two of them to Enzo Cahoon. Bowman had just 108 passing yards in his career entering Friday.
“We had this three quarterback rotation we had been working on and Bowman has risen up,” Ricci said. “He’s getting better and getting more confidence. That’s what we want to see out of him.”
Vanderbeek threw for 122 yards with a touchdown and ran for 65 yards. Drew Meyers ran for 106 yards on 18 carries for the Hawks.
Laguna Hills opened the scoring with a 15-play, 99-yard scoring drive after being pinned down at its own 1-yard line by Irvine punter Gavin Furr. Vanderbeek threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Merrick Marquis to give the Hawks a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Irvine then went on a scoring drive aided by a fake punt in which Furr threw a 32-yard pass to Zephaniah Kim. Bowman threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Cahoon, but the 2-point attempt failed and the Vaqueros trailed 7-6 early in the second quarter.
Braden Sykes 5-yard touchdown run on a fourth down attempt to give the Hawks a 14-6 lead. Skykes has just two rushing attempts this season and both of them are touchdown runs.
Bowman threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Walters midway through the third quarter to cut Laguna Hills’ lead to 14-12.
Bowman and Cahoon connected for another touchdown, this time from 25 yards out in the final minute of the third quarter to give Irvine its first lead of the game with an 18-14 score.
James Gerlach had two sacks for Laguna Hills and Logan Druckrey added one.
Irvine has won three consecutive games and will host Kennedy on Friday, Sept. 18.
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Laguna Hills has a bye before playing St. Margaret’s on the road on Sept. 25.