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Irvine players (from left) Sina Saferzadeh, Deacon Moss, Brandon “Figgy” Figueroa and Joseph Lynch hold the Dennis Toohey Fence Post Trophy. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; action shots courtesy Jim Tomlin).
Irvine High School’s football team kept hanging around into the third quarter, trailing by as many as 12 points Thursday night in a Pacific Hills League showdown against Beckman at Tustin.
But the Vaqueros started to click later in the quarter, finished strong and went on to defeat the Patriots 20-12 to clinch at least a share of the league title and claim the Dennis Toohey Fence Post Trophy which goes to the top Irvine team in Irvine.
It’s the first league title for Irvine since 2021. Beckman was looking to win its first league championship since 2011.
“For some reason, we tend to come out flat,” said Irvine Coach Tom Ricci. “I don’t know why it is, but our kids also believe they can win, even when we’re down. We came back in the Woodbridge game, we came back in the Troy game, in the Portola game and in this game.
“We are a second half team ….. but our guys don’t quit, they believe they can win and our coaches made great adjustments in the second half and that’s what I attribute it to. I think our conditioning is a big part of that as well.”
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Beckman (7-2, 1-1) had a 6-0 lead at halftime on field goals of 34 and 22 yards by Gui De Luca. Then quarterback Austin Shepard scored on a 1-yard keeper with 5:52 left in the third quarter to put the Patriots ahead 12-0.
Irvine then began to rally. Brandon “Figgy” Figueroa scored on a 12-yard TD run late in the third quarter to cut the lead to 12-7.
Irvine (6-3, 2-0) still trailed going into the fourth quarter but a 35-yard punt return by Deacon Moss gave the Vaqueros excellent field position and led to a 8-yard TD run by quarterback Sina Saferzadeh (who was starting his third game after an injury to starter Khoa Bui) putting Irvine ahead 13-12 with 9:26 remaining. The Vaqueros missed the two-point conversion.
“My teammates did a great job blocking and I saw a hole and I took it but I give everything I have because of my teammates, they make great blocks; it was amazing,” Moss said.
Irvine extended its lead to 20-12 on a 1-yard TD run by Figueroa with 5:02 left in the game.
Beckman, trying to tie the game with a TD and 2-point conversion, had one final chance driving to the Irvine 19-yard line but Shepard’s pass was incomplete as time ran out.
Shepard led Beckman passing for 142 yards and rushing for 41 yards. Brett Fleming had 52 yards rushing on 11 carries for the Patriots.
“Tough game but I thought the kids played really, really hard all the way until the end,” said Beckman Coach Marcello Giuliano. “We had that fourth and five to extend the drive (late) and never gave up and at the end of the day Irvine made a few more plays than we did and we didn’t convert in the first half in some red zone stuff that we needed to and we couldn’t build a big enough lead cause you know at some point 14 (Moss) is going to get going and zero (Figueroa) is going to get going and we didn’t give ourselves enough of a cushion.”
Figueroa led Irvine, rushing for 94 yards and two TDS. Saferzadeh rushed for 66 yards and passed for 42 yards.
Moss had two rushes for 22 yard and two catches for 31 yards and a big point after kick on the final TD.
“It feels so good, we put in so much work since the off-season and spring and it’s showing off now,” said Moss. “I’m so proud of everybody and all the work they put in; it just feels so great. The mentality at halftime in the locker-room, it was zero-zero, we’ve been in that situation before and we just had to come out and battle together, and that’s what we did, we played for each other.”
“It feels amazing,” added Figueroa. “We started off a little down, the offense wasn’t doing much, the defense still held them. We had internal mistakes, they weren’t better than us; we just had to flip it around and come back and win that game. We just kind of kept our heads up; we tried to support our linemen and our big guys and keep up the energy and the mentality and it ended up good.”
Irvine’s junior tight end/defensive end Joseph Lynch said the Vaqueros believed at halftime they could pull off the comeback.
“Honestly, going into halftime, we were sad we were losing, but we knew we’re the best team in Irvine and no one can take that away from us, so if we come together as a team in the end, we know we will win and that’s all we did, we just executed,” he said.
Winning the Fence Post for the first time since 2021 also meant a lot. Northwood took home the trophy last year.
“It means everything, coach always had it above his office (when Irvine won) whenever we walk in watching film, we see it every time, we always touch it and it means everything to have it at home,” Lynch said.
Irvine can win the outright league title with a win over University at home next week. Beckman needs to defeat Woodbridge at University and Uni would need to upset Irvine for the Patriots to earn a share of the title.
It’s the third league title for Ricci since he started at Irvine.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
