Davis Sparks St. Margaret's to 52-16 Victory Over Brethren Christian

St. Margaret’s Episcopal's sophomore quarterback, Joshua Davis, threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more to lead the Tartans to their fifth consecutive victory, 52-16, over Brethren Christian in an Academy League opener Thursday night at Ocean View High.

The Tartans started fast against the Warriors as they scored on their first four possessions en route to a 35-3 halftime lead.

Brethren Christian was trying to put some points on the board late in the second quarter after Jacob Roque's interception gave them the ball deep in Tartan territory. However, on their first play, they surrendered the ball on Tartan junior defensive back Chase McClure's interception, which he returned to the Warriors' 43-yard line.

Davis completed a 10 yard pass to Harrison White to move the ball to the 33. Three plays later, he completed a short pass to junior Andrew Torok and Torok did the rest as he scrambled 33 yards for a touchdown with three seconds left in the half.

Davis took over the quarterbacking duties this season after playing on the junior varsity squad as a freshman.

"From his first game until now, the growth is incredible," St. Margaret's coach Rod Baltau said. "I couldn’t be happier, and he’s only going to keep growing.” 

The Tartans (6-2 overall, 1-0 in league) opened the second half with a five-play drive culminated by an eight-yard touchdown pass from Davis to junior receiver Scott McGowan to push the lead to 42-3 with 9:01 left in the third quarter. Matt Duenes' 44-yard run to the Brethren Christian five yard line helped set up the touchdown pass.

From there the Tartans began to lean on Duenes to run the ball and the clock. Duenes finished with 185 yards and a touchdown.

But the Tartans were not without problems that have Baltau concerned about the final three weeks of the season. St. Margaret's received some personal foul penalties and a muffed punt helped Brethren Christian score two touchdowns in less than two minutes in the third quarter.

"Those little things like that, we hadn’t been doing and you can’t do that once you get into the playoffs,” Baltau said.

Brethren Christian (4-4, 0-1) opened the game with a drive to the Tartans' 26-yard yard line, but the St. Margaret’s defense held and took over on downs. The offense then struck quickly behind two passes by Davis. The second was a 63-yard completion down the right side as Martin Burke got behind his defender and outran the Warriors to the end zone.

On Brethren Christian’s next possession, sophomore linebacker Jake Hines intercepted a tipped pass to give the Tartans the ball at the Warriors' 32-yard line. Again it took only two plays to score as Davis found junior Scott McGowan for a 32-yard touchdown that pushed the lead to 14-0.

"It was definitely sloppy," Duenes said. "But in the end, I think we all worked hard for that win and it definitely was a team effort."

St. Margaret’s, which has won eight consecutive league titles and reached the CIF-Southern Section's East Valley Division semifinals last season, will host Sage Hill on Friday at 7 p.m.