Football: Mission Viejo 35, Trabuco Hills 12

There is a reason the South Coast League is one of the top five football leagues in the nation. It is solid top to bottom.

And on Friday, the bottom gave the top all it could handle.

For a half.

Which is more than most teams do.

Mission Viejo used a dominant second-half performance, scoring on four of six possessions, to score a 35-12 home victory over Trabuco Hills.

Mission Viejo (9-0 overall, 3-0 in league), ranked No. 1 in Orange County, No. 4 in the state (Cal-Hi Sports) and No. 23 in the nation (ESPN), next plays host to undefeated El Toro (9-0, 3-0) and quarterback Conner Manning to decide the South Coast champion and determine the No. 1 team in the county.

Both teams have clinched the league's automatic berths in the Southern Section Pac-5 playoffs.

The 35 points scored by Mission Viejo was its lowest output of the season, matching its peformance in the first two games of the season. The difference is that back then, Mission was still getting in sync with its three key transfers, quarterback Ian Fieber, running back Alex Suchesk and receiver Sean Modster.

In the five games since a 35-21 win over San Marcos Mission Hills of the San Diego Section, Mission scored 42, 63, 84, 52, 45 and 55 points.

Only an 11-yard touchdown pass from Fieber to Modster with 2:13 left in the second quarter prevented Trabuco Hills (4-5, 0-3) from taking a 5-0 lead into halftime.

The Mustangs had scored on a 23-yard field goal by Blake Cuzzupoli and a safety as the defense forced Fieber into an intentional grounding penalty from his own end zone with five minutes left.

But the Mission Viejo offense got rolling, scoring before halftime and then picking up where it left off in the third quarter.

Playing well off its 51 points-per-game pace, Mission opened the second half with an 80-yard drive, nearly half of it coming on a 37-yard completion to Max Redfield, before Alex Suchesk scored from 1 to give the Diablos a 14-5 lead.

Turnovers plagued Trabuco as Mission took advantage added to the lead. The Diablos' Marcus Collins scored the first of two TDs with 1:33 left in the third quarter. Collins scored from 2 yards for a 21-5 lead, and from 8 yards for 35-5 lead.

In between, Redfield caught a 26-yard scoring strike from Fieber, who completed 17 of 28 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns. Redfield caught 10 passes for 182 yards.

It might have been a far different game had Trabuco Hills not turned the ball over so much. The Mustangs closed the scoring on Nathan Perry's touchdown pass to Alex Staff with 14 seconds remaining. Perry passed for 152 yards.

For Mission Viejo, the showdown with El Toro looms to determine the league champ.

For Trabuco, it will finish the season against San Clemente hoping to get out of last place. And even though the Mustangs won't be making the playoffs, they did something that few have done this season.

They slowed the juggernaut.