Wilson Runs, Passes San Clemente Past La Costa Canyon, 58-7

Who says Travis Wilson isn't a mobile quarterback?

Certainly not the La Costa Canyon Mavericks, San Diego County's No. 9 rated football team, after traveling all the way from Carlsbad to San Clemente Friday night only to be pushed around by Wilson's Tritons, 58-7.

A future Pac-12 signalcaller at Utah, an Elite 11 candidate, and known throughout Southern California as one of its most lethal gunslingers, Wilson stands at 6 feet 6 and spends most of his time in the pocket. But on Friday he showed another side, finding openings in La Costa Canyon's front seven and exploiting them to the tune of 54 yards in seven carries, including two first-down scampers of 17 yards, and two rushing touchdowns.

"We had a really great game; it was really fun," Wilson said. "Our defense shut them down. They're playing really well right now. Our offense executed, and we made big plays."

No one made bigger plays for the Tritons than senior tailback Mike Elespuru, who at 6 feet, 190 pounds, provides San Clemente with a rare combination of size and speed at the position -- an eye-popping skill-set that was on full display Friday night.

Elespuru carried the ball 14 times for 152 yards, including back-to-back touchdown runs of 28 and 48-yards, that made it 21-7 only two minutes into the second quarter and ignited a 31-point outburst in the frame that would leave the Tritons sitting pretty at 38-7 heading into the locker room.

"Mike's a great runner, he had a big day and I'm happy for him," Wilson said. "I'm glad we're giving him the ball."

Elespuru's second touchdown, a power-running masterpiece highlighted by four broken tackles, was set up by a leaping interception by Marcus Meredith, the first of two picks San Clemente nabbed in the first half.  All told, La Costa Canyon turned the ball over five times, including three fumbles, with two coming on special teams.

The Mavericks (1-2) were able to start the game right with a 15-yard score on a draw by senior tailback Isaac Maquet (16 carries, 80 yards) that was set up by a 40-yard strike on third-and-nine from quarterback Jake Sesti to Brett Lingelbach, but it was all downhill from there. Besides the five giveaways, La Costa Canyon's offense managed only 68 net yards rushing, 69 yards passing, and eight first downs -- two in the second half.

"We didn't play with any heart," La Costa Canyon's Michigan-bound senior tackle Erik Magnuson said. "That's something we experienced last week with a loss. When something went wrong, we couldn't come back from it. I don't know if it's something we're doing throughout the week or if it's an issue of heart, but we have to go back to work on Saturday and see what we can do."

San Clemente kicker Bret Miller connected on field goals of 33, 34 and 27 yards and the Tritons scored five rushing touchdowns, including an eight-yard cherry-on-top scamper by Joseph Buonfiglio with two minutes left in the game.

Wilson was mostly conservative in the passing game, consistently checking down and taking what La Costa Canyon's defense offered. He finished the night with 154 yards through the air with a 68 completion percentage (15-of-22) and two touchdowns, an 18-yard dump-off in traffic to Chris French that the tight end rumbled to paydirt and a four-yard slant to Christian Bailey with three seconds left in the first half.

Defensively, San Clemente was lights out after the Mavericks' opening drive. The Tritons spread the wealth, racking up three sacks, one each from Herbert Gamboa, Nico Ruberti and Jake Klein, and six tackles-for-loss from six different players.

"Our defense is flying around," San Clemente coach Jon Hamro said. "It wasn't a great start, but they settled in. We've got good speed on defense, a lot of speed, actually, and they're really embracing this turnover situation, trying to create them, and we're emphasizing it. You know, we've got the sharks running around back there, and every week is 'Shark Week.'"

Through three weeks, San Clemente (3-0) has outscored its opponents, 136-23, but with a trip to Santa Ana College and a meeting with Mater Dei looming next Friday, the road looks to get a bit more bumpy. 

Last year, the Monarchs started the season with back-to-back losses to Corona and Centennial, before taking out their anger on San Clemente in a 42-14 victory at Thalassa Stadium.

Mater Dei lost to Centennial Friday night, 28-20, and, following a loss to Corona the previous week, are once again saddled with an 0-2 record and are no doubt seeing red.

"It's definitely going to be a good game," Wilson said. "It's going to be a challenge, but we're going to prepare hard and we're going to be ready."

La Costa Canyon travels to the Inland Empire next Friday to take on Redlands.


GAME NOTES

• San Clemente senior outside linebacker Jake Klein left the game in the third quarter with a knee injury and didn't return.
• Austin Baker, Nico Ruberti, Landon Cook, Julian Perry, Chad Foster and Ryan Alvarez each collected tackles-for-loss for the Tritons.
• San Clemente tailback Nick Pasquale had eight rushes for 61 yards and four catches for 59 yards.
• The Tritons' leading receiver was Christian Bailey with five catches.
• San Clemente ran 69 plays on offense to La Costa Canyon's 36.

GAME STATISTICS

                                     1     2     3     4    --  T

La Costa Canyon        7     0      0     0   --    7

San Clemente             7    31    10   10  --   58


                                    LCC             SC

First Downs                   8                25
Rushing Yards              68               273
Passing Yards              69               176
Total Net Yards            137              449
Turnovers                      5                 0
Penalties-Yards           7-60             8-85


SCORING


1st Quarter

LCC -- Isaac Maquet 15 run; Taylor Erickson kick, 7:30
SC -- Travis Wilson 1 run; Bret Miller kick, 2:08

2nd Quarter

SC -- Mike Elespuru 28 run; Miller kick, 11:53
SC -- Elespuru 48 run; Miller kick, 10:18
SC -- Miller 33 field goal, 5:20
SC -- Chris French 15 pass from Wilson; Miller kick, 4:40
SC -- Christian Bailey 4 pass from Wilson; Miller kick, :03

3rd Quarter

SC -- Miller 34 field goal, 7:38
SC -- Wilson 7 run; Miller kick, 4:48

4th Quarter

SC -- Miller 27 field goal, 6:45
SC -- Joseph Buonfiglio 8 run; Miller kick, 1:56