On Friday night the Santa Fe Christian Eagles’ soared.  SFC dominated Southwest El Centro High School by a score of 56-0.  The Eagles remain undefeated and are now 5-0 on the season and ranked in the top 20 in San Diego by MaxPreps.

SFC stymied Southwest’s offense all night long.  It was truly an impressive performance by the SFC defense.  “Three and out” was the theme for the night as Southwest did not have a first down until five minutes were left in the game.  The Eagles’ defense gave up only two first downs in the entire game, with both first downs coming on the last drive of the game for Southwest.  Luke Heggie led the team in tackles with 6, including 4 tackles for a loss and 2 sacks.  Luca Torti and Chase Wetzel each had 5 tackles each.  The defense recorded a season high 13 tackles for a loss by Heggie, Wetzel, Torti, Dante Rotchford, Colton Lehberg, Joey Olmore, Evan Langenbach, and freshman Magnus Falkiewicz.

The SFC starting offense was very efficient in the first half of the game scoring on every possession and racking up 42 points.  Thomas Greupner completed 7 of 10 passes for 150 yards (21.4/yards per catch) and 3 touchdowns – two TDs to Zack Marshall and one TD to Jackson Bush.  All of that in the first half of the game.  Zack Marshall’s one-handed touchdown catch was a gem for the ages and got a shoutout as a possible play of the week candidate on KUSI’s Prep Pigskin Report. 

For the game, 8 different players caught passes for the Eagles’ offense.  And 14 players carried the ball for over 200 yards, including four Sophomores (Duncan Nuckols, Trevion Adcox, Britain Kowalchek and Kevin Olah) as well as freshman Andrew Hidy.  Hidy also played quarterback the entire second half. 

Luca Torti led the team in rushing with 34 yards and a touchdown.  Luke Heggie added 26 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Jackson Bush had 26 yards on 2 carries (13 yards/carry).

Southwest mounted only one serious scoring threat on their last drive of the game.  The drive started on Southwest’s 20-yard line and after an incomplete pass and a tackle for a loss, Southwest completed a 13-yard pass on 3rd down for their 1st first down of the game.  On the next play, Southwest completed a 48-yard pass play for their longest play of the game and their second (and last) first down.  The SFC cornerback was in good position to defend the pass, but the receiver simply made a great catch.  On the next play the SFC defense sacked the quarterback for a 10-yard loss and on second down the Eagles tackled the Southwest receiver for a loss.  On third down Southwest picked up 15 yards to bring up 4th and 10 from the Eagles’ 22-yard line.  The drive was thwarted by Colton Lehberg’s interception at the 7-yard line sealing the shut-out for the Eagles.

The “Talon Shoutouts” this week go to:

The Defense (pitching a shut-out for the first time this season, and giving up only 2 first downs for the entire game which must be a school record)

Thomas Greupner (150 passing yards, 3 touchdowns, and 17 rushing yards, all in the first half)

Zach Marshall (3 catches for 74 yards (25 yards/catch), 2 touchdowns, including a spectacular, crowd pleasing, one handed touchdown catch and run)

Luke Heggie (26 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns, team leading 6 tackles, including 4 tackles for loss)

The next game for SFC is Homecoming on Saturday October 2nd at 12:00 at SFC against the Bishop Knights, a Coastal League rival.  The Knights are currently 3-1 and will likely be 4-1 when then travel to SFC in two weeks.  The last time SFC played Bishops was in 2019 when Bishops, led by quarterback Tyler Buchner, beat SFC 49-0 in the regular season meeting and 44-7 in the CIF playoffs.  Buchner is now QB in college, playing for Notre Dame.

GO EAGLES!   OORAH!