ORANGE — The Orange traffic circle has seen more congestion than usual the past couple months.
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Particularly late on Friday nights.
That’s when the school bus carrying the Orange football team back to campus after victories takes a detour and does a lap around the traffic circle for every touchdown the Panthers score.
They put up six more Friday night in a 53-7 win against Segerstrom in a Foxtrot League game at El Modena High, meaning six more laps for a team that’s averaging 44.3 points a game.
“We’re going to do every one of them because you never know when it’s going to happen again,” Orange coach Robert Pedroza said of the long-standing post-victory tradition.
As long as the Panthers (7-0, 2-0) have quarterback Star Thomas III running the offense, they shouldn’t have difficulty finding the end zone with regularity in the Foxtrot League.
Thomas completed 16 of 22 passes for 261 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for a 9-yard score.
“He’s always accurate and just knows how to throw the ball really well,” said junior wide receiver KJ Woodbury, who continues to be Thomas’s favorite target. The Mission Viejo transfer caught seven passes for 114 yards and three touchdowns.
Thomas said Woodbury has been a very valuable addition to the team.
“He’s a very intelligent player, smart player,” Thomas said. “He has all the abilities to make that play, make that block.”
Karsten Hardiman, a freshman, started the night by returning a squib kick on the game’s opening kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown and a quick 6-0 lead.
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The Panthers then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff at the Segerstrom 28 and scored three plays later on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Thomas to Woodbury that made it 13-0 just 70 seconds into the game.
Pedroza said he liked the energy the Panthers showed early on.
“I liked the way we came out from the get-go,” Pedroza said. “The last couple weeks, we’ve started a little slow, which we weren’t very happy about as coaches and as a program.”
Another freshman, running back Jeremiah Dunklin, scored on a 1-yard run to stretch the lead to 20-0 with 3:22 left in the opening quarter.
Woodbury caught a pass over the middle and muscled his way into the end zone for a 18-yard touchdown and a 26-0 lead with 10:07 remaining in the first half.
“He’s my guy,” Woodbury said of Thomas. “He always knows how to find me. The timing is impeccable with him.”
Thomas then hooked up with fellow junior Dylan Stone on a 15-yard fingertip catch that made it 32-0.
Anthony Randle capped the first-half scoring by batting a pass in the air, catching it on the way down and returning it 55 yards for a touchdown and a 39-0 lead with 1:02 left.
“I just saw the quarterback, he was about to throw,” Randle said. “I put my hands up and I blocked it. I thought that was it, but I looked up, I saw it, I went for it and I had it. I was just running, I was just hoping for the best. I broke a tackle or two and, next thing you know, I’m in the end zone.”
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Segerstrom fell to 3-4, 1-1 in league.