
Orange League
WESTERN (1-7, 1-2) VS. SANTA ANA VALLEY (5-3, 2-1)
Where, when: Santa Ana Stadium, Saturday, 1 p.m.
Outlook: Since Valley joined the Orange League before the 1996 season, Western has beaten the Falcons every time they have played – nine games in a row, by an average margin of 25 points. That streak could end in this game.
Valley’s Darius Nacoste, a 5-8, 168-pound senior, is the county’s fifth-leading rusher with 1,315 yards. He ran for 250 yards and three touchdowns, and scored on a 90-yard return on the opening kickoff, last week in a crucial 40-21 league victory over Savanna – a team that beat Western by 11 points the previous week. Western was shut out, 3-0, by Anaheim last week. Graduation left Western a bit thin before the season started, but things really took a bad turn when two-time league player of the year Ruben Ortega, a standout running back and linebacker, was lost for the season when he fractured a tibia and fibula in an early-October game against Marina.
Winner: Santa Ana Valley
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