ORANGE – Some touchdowns are more special than others.
For El Modena senior tight end Christian Tafau, the touchdown he scored Thursday during the Vanguards’ 49-24 win over Segerstrom was very special.
“I know my mom was watching from above,” Tafua said.
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Lisa Tafua died Saturday, age 49, from lung cancer. Steve Tafua, her husband and Christian’s father, is El Modena’s defensive line coach on the school’s football team.
Tafua scored on a 20-yard pass from senior quarterback Xzavior Guess in the second quarter of the nonleague game at El Modena High.
Some of Tafua’s family members sang the national anthem. Coaches and many others wore “Tafua Strong” shirts and those words were on banners, on the scoreboard and on the rear windows of cars in the El Modena parking lot.
El Modena, ranked No. 16 in the Orange County Top 25, is 4-0. Segerstrom is 3-1.
Guess completed 16 of 22 passes for 294 yards and four touchdowns. Connor Smith had five receptions for 149 yards and a touchdown. Brodie Hitchens caught a touchdown pass, scored on a touchdown run and ripped the ball from a Segerstrom ball carrier in Jaguars territory to set up his touchdown run.
El Modena’s Cooper Nagele returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown.
Segerstrom quarterback Jesse Lopez had a rough start, with no completions on his first six passes. He then connected on 12 of his final 15 passes, including a 33-yard touchdown pass to Nicholas Cervantes. Lopez scored on a 35-yard run.
Cervantes had six receptions for 153 yards.
Postgame with Christian Tafua of El Modena. His mother Lisa passed away Saturday from a rare form of lung cancer at 49. Christian scored on a 20-yard reception in a 49-24 win over Segerstrom … pic.twitter.com/ZrpEbVRPSY
— Steve Fryer (@SteveFryer) September 13, 2024
El Modena coach Matt Mitchell likes the growth of his team over the season’s four games.
“We’re still young in some spots,” Mitchell said. “We’re just getting better each week.”
The Vanguards scored on their first possession on a 49-yard touchdown pass from Guess to Hitchens. The Jaguars got a 21-yard field goal from Diego Hernandez to make it 7-3.
Then El Modena began to pull away. Smith caught a 77-yard touchdown pass, Russell caught one for 32 yards and Tafua got his touchdown catch and it was 28-3 at halftime.
Segerstrom football is known for its tenacity and that showed up in the second half.
Lopez connected with Cervantes for a 33-yard touchdown on the Jaguars’ first possession of the third quarter.
Nagele followed with his 90-yard kickoff return touchdown but even that did not tear the fight out of Segerstrom.
The Jaguars scored on a 3-yard run by Noah Tagaloa, their defense forced an El Modena punt, and Lopez scored on his 35-yard run with 18 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 35-24.
El Modena put the game away when Hitchens made his smash-and-grab fumble recovery and on the next play scored on a 17-yard run.
Shane Leslie scored on an 8-yard run with 4:28 to go to stretch the lead to 49-24.
Football is a team game. Sometimes, the team game is about one player. El Modena’s first two offensive plays of the game were passes to Tafua.
“It’s been a rough week,” Tafua said. “But seeing everyone in the stands … everyone chanting our family name, it meant so much to me.”
Segerstrom has a bye next week before playing its final nonleague game of the season on Sept. 27 against Troy at Fullerton High. The Jaguars will then begin play in the six-team Kappa League that includes Brea Olinda, Esperanza, Garden Grove, St. Margaret’s and Westminster.
El Modena plays its final nonleague game of the season on Sept. 20 against Mission College Prep at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The Vanguards then take their bye week before beginning Delta League play with a home game on Oct 3 against Trabuco Hills. The other teams in the six-team league are Capistrano Valley, Cypress, Tustin and Western.
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