Football: JSerra 48, Servite 43

JSerra scored the biggest victory in its history Friday with a 48-43 upset of Servite that shook the Trinity League and, remarkably, kept the Lions’ playoff hopes alive. The victory should put to rest any thoughts about having the Lions in the Orange County Top 10 as their losses mount in the Trinity League.

If they can beat Santa Margarita Catholic next week, St. John Bosco beats Servite and Orange Lutheran beats Mater Dei, then JSerra could be in a three-way tie for third place and position itself to win a coin flip to get into the Southern Section's Pac-5 Division playoffs for the first time.

• Orange County Top 10 and Patch's Vote

Key Stats: Casey Eugenio rushed 28 times for 192 yards and scored four touchdowns—one on a 35-yard interception return—for JSerra.

Pivotal Moment: It’s hard to pick a play early in the game of this type, but Eugenio’s interception return—which essentially provided the decisive points—was the kind of big play you can never count on getting. It gave the Lions a 14-7 lead at the time, and seven points they would need when the clock expired.

Quotable: “It’s big,” JSerra coach Jim Hartigan told the Orange County Register. “(The win) kind of got the elephant off our back. When you go through three weeks of brutal losses in the Trinity League, it takes a toll.”           

Records: JSerra (6-3 overall, 1-3 in Trinity League), Servite (5-4, 2-2)

Notes:  This is the biggest victory in JSerra history. … Servite came into the game ranked No. 3 in Orange County, No. 6 in the Southern Section Pac-5 Division. JSerra is ranked No. 8 in the county. … JSerra had losses to Orange Lutheran (29-13), Mater Dei (38-14) and St. John Bosco (48-7) before its victory over Servite, which last week beat Orange Lutheran, 20-19, on a Hail Mary on the last play of the game. … Nick Robinson passed for 264 yards and touchdowns of 60 yards to Dante Pettis and 33 yards to Ethan Aguayo. … Pettis also peeled off a 64-yard run with 10:37 left in the game; less than a minute earlier, Servite had pulled to 40-37 lead. … Servite’s Travis Waller rushed for 253 yards and a touchdown, and passed for 87 and two touchdowns, the last a 62-yarder with 9:58 left in the game. … Servite, hoping for a second consecutive come-from-behind victory, was driving for the winning touchdown; it faced third and 14 at the JSerra 31 but Waller fumbled on the 28 and JSerra recovered. ... This is the Lions' first victory over Servite. Since joining the Trinity League, it also has victories over Orange Lutheran and Santa Margarita.