Daryl Bogard, UNI Football Boosters
Game Date: October 27, 2023 7:00PM PST | Photography by: Sandrine Scherson
After winning on Senior Night / Homecoming Last week, University lost to Irvine on their Homecoming/ Senior Night, 42-7 Fri night. With the win, Irvine win the Pacific Hills league title going 3-0 in conference and 7-3 overall.
Uni finished the regular season third place in the conference with a 1-2 record and 4-6 overall. The Trojans are still hoping for a CIF at-large playoff spot.
Uni was hurt by three turnovers: two interceptions and a lost fumble as well as a blocked punt.
Irvine leveraged a two-man wrecking crew to account for 34 of their 42 points. Junior running back Brandon Figueroa scored three first half touchdowns on runs of 7, 32 and 30 yards. Versatile Junior Deacon Moss scored on a 55-yard punt return and a 16-yard pass reception and kicked four extra points. Sophomore quarterback Sina Saferzadeh ran for a two-point conversion and threw a pair of touchdown passes, the second one on a 48-yarder to Senior Chase Russom. Moss had 101 all-purpose yards.
The Trojans lone score came on a second quarter 5-yard pass from Senior Blaine Anderson to Senior Brooks Beckmann.
Irvine had 256 yards from scrimmage (143 running and 113 passing) while Uni had 141 yards (39 on the ground and 102 in the air).
Anderson was Uni’s leading rusher with 15 yards on 8 carries. Jai Williams had 12 yards on 11 rushes. Asger Ross ran it once for 12 yards before leaving with an ankle injury.
Anderson completed 9 of 20 passes for 102 yards. Beckmann had 3 catches for 32 yards while Jonathan Soto had 3 for 30 yards. Zephyr Reynolds and Carl Oldham each caught a pass for 19 yards and Ross had a catch for 2 yards.
Soto had 144 all-purpose yards including five kickoff returns for 102 yards. Luke Edwards returned one kickoff for 16 yards and recovered a fumble on another Trojan kick return.
Skye Murphy kicked one extra point and boomed one of his two kickoffs 59 yards. Andrew Bogard had two punts for 75 yards with the last one going 46 yards.
Williams led the defense with 10 tackles. Daniel Bar On had 8 tackles including one sack and another two tackles for loss. Eithar Takesh also had 8 tackles. Richard Bines had 7 tackles, one for loss. Reynolds had 4 tackles. Michael Gasper and Lex Hackett each had 3 tackles. Owen Chiou had a pair of tackles and a sack. Soto had two tackles, one for loss. Damari Carter had two tackles as well.
Keep the faith until Sunday when the CIF playoffs are announced.