TWO-MINUTE DRILL

The Estancia High football team’s 44-7 victory over Mark Keppel set two school records. It was the most points scored and the largest margin of victory during a season opener in the Eagles’ 42 varsity seasons.

The previous highest point total in an opener was 35 (twice) — against Century in 1997 and against Magnolia in 1999.

Friday was also Estancia’s highest point total since the Eagles beat Laguna Beach, 62-23, in 2000.

Senior running back-linebacker Don Ayres, a Newport-Mesa Dream Team performer as a junior, suffered a shoulder separation that will sideline him at least two weeks, Lightning Coach Tom Monarch said.

Ayres will miss Friday’s nonleague clash with Saddleback Valley Christian, after which the Lightning have a bye week.

Monarch said Ayres’ targeted return date would be for the recently added Sept. 22 home game against Western Christian.

The Eagles didn’t allow Keppel to cross midfield until back Erik Jimenez’s 32-yard run with fewer than than 11 minutes left in the game.

The Aztecs also had negative net yards until that same play.

An assistant the last decade, Osso, a former Estancia High player, said he was much more nervous, leading up to the game, as a head coach.

The jitters didn’t stop at the opening kickoff either.

“At one point, I was yelling for [quarterback Cody Waldron] to call timeout and the referee came over to me and said ‘You’re the head coach, you can call timeout yourself,’ ” Osso said.

CdM won, 27-0, on Oct. 20, 2005 and earned a 35-8 victory on Nov. 12, 2004.

The win was CdM’s eighth straight over its former Pacific Coast League rival, CdM’s 11th in their last 12 meetings.

In all, there were seven turnovers in the last 12 minutes, and it looked as if either team could walk away with the victory until the clock hit 1:03 and junior quarterback Jamie McGee hit streaking senior wideout Braden Ross for a 40-yard touchdown pass.

That pass was directly preceded by a St. Genevieve fumble and immediately followed by a Tom Multari interception.

Multari returned the interception to the one-yard line before he fumbled, and teammate Max Torres recovered in the end zone for an insurance score.

There were 11 turnovers in the game.

He rushed for 178 yards on 29 carries in his first varsity game (he was forced to play on the junior varsity last year after transferring from Estancia), including a 23-yard touchdown run.

He received several congratulatory postgame pats on the back from Savanna coaches and players and earned the praise of his own coach, Osso.

“You can’t measure heart,” Osso said. “He’s a very tough kid with a tremendous amount of heart. He’s not the first guy of his size to carry the ball that many times at this school, and we expect him to be that type of a player all season.”