Friday, January 13, 2012
Santa Margarita Catholic's John McGrory boots a 45-yard field goal to decide a 19-16 victory for the South in the Literary Classic. JSerra lineman Juan Diego Temple also makes a monster play.
John McGrory finally got a chance to kick a game-winning field goal. The senior from Santa Margarita Catholic, who set a Southern Section record for most consecutive point-after attempts made, stood on the sidelines in the State Division I Bowl and watched teammate Johnny Stanton score on fourth-and-one with 16 seconds remaining to give the Eagles a 42-37 victory. Thursday night, though, McGrory got a chance to get on the field and win a game. He kicked a 45-yard field goal with about three minutes left to give the South/East a 19-16 victory over the North/Westin the inaugural Competitive Elite Sports Literacy Classic at Whittier College. The game was for private school athletes who had at least a 2.3 grade-point average, had never failed…
Friday, December 16, 2011
Junior quarterback runs and passes the Eagles on a last-minute drive, scoring on fourth-and-goal from the one, to beat Bellarmine of San Jose Friday at Home Depot Center in Carson.
Junior quarterback Johnny Stanton drove his team 80 yards with less than two minutes to play and scored on a fourth-and-one plunge with 16 seconds left to give Santa Margarita a 42-37 victory over Bellarmine of San Jose in the CIF State Division I Bowl Championship football game Friday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson. It was a defining moment for the Eagles. They could have had John McGrory kick an 18-yard field goal. Instead, Coach Harry Welch put the game in the hands of Stanton and his offensive line. "I felt awfully strongly about Max Tuerk and Johnny Stanton," Welch said of his USC-bound lineman and junior QB. "Since they had brought us here, I believed that would be a good way to win. And, if we lost with John Stanton and …
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Young Santa Margarita squad allows San Clemente only two possessions in second half on way to winning the biggest game of CIF Southern Section's toughest division at Angel Stadium on Saturday night.
Johnny Stanton did it again. The junior quarterback with the seemingly magical season once again led Santa Margarita to a victory, but not just any victory. In front of 14,424 at Angel Stadium, Stanton ran and passed the Eagles to their first football championship since winning back-to-back titles in 1996-97 with a 27-13 victory over San Clemente. Stanton rushed for 148 yards and one touchdown and passed for 92 and another to give Santa Margarita the Southern Section Pac-5 championship Saturday night. The Eagles (12-2) should be in the conversation Sunday when CIF commissioners choose which teams will play in State Bowl games. The victory was the third in a row against an opponent that had lost only one game to a Southern Section team …
In the wake of his mother's death, the Santa Margarita Catholic student took up a new sport, juggled a 4.02 GPA with babysitting, and kicked his way into the record book.
When Santa Margarita Catholic steps onto the football field against San Clemente, John McGrory will do his part one point at a time. McGrory kicks the extra points for the high-scoring Eagles. He mixes in the occasional field goal, but on extra points he almost never misses. Not in two years. He has set a Southern Section record, and came within nine kicks of matching the state record. The only reason he’s not perfect—and closer to the national record—is because he pulled his first kick to the left in a first-round playoff game. It ended a streak of 106 consecutive kicks splitting the uprights. What makes McGrory's accomplishment even more special is that he never kicked a football until he was a sophomore, and almost all the fields in …
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Johnny Stanton rushes for four touchdowns and Santa Margarita's defense forces five turnovers. Up next for Eagles: Mission Viejo in the Pac-5 Division semifinals.
As much as a 49-16 victory over third-seeded Long Beach Poly in the Jackrabbits' backyard during the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division quarterfinals can be called "routine," that's exactly what it was for Santa Margarita Catholic on Friday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach. Quarterback Johnny Stanton rushed for four touchdowns, Ryan Wolpin and Alex Suchesk added three more scores on the ground, and the Eagles' swarming defense forced five Long Beach Poly turnovers, including four interceptions, two of them swiped by safety Connor O'Brien. In other words, it was the same ol' same ol'. "It was so much fun," Stanton said. "It was really cool being able to play such a legendary team and do so well against them. They have so …
Lawrence (Larry) McCook
5:53 pm on Saturday, January 14, 2012
Congratulations for the outstanding performance! This is coming from myself the father of a former PK/WR for Bellarmine and Cal poly- SLO. more ›