ORANGE — El Modena was dominant in the trenches and cruised to a 38-0 win over Santa Ana in a nonleague football game Thursday at El Modena High.

The Vanguards ran for 280 yards and four touchdowns, and their defense held Santa Ana to 70 rushing yards.

El Modena (1-0) limited Santa Ana to 130 yards of total offense and had three sacks. Esteban Choucair had two sacks and Shane Whitehill added one. Elijah Wu led the Vanguards in tackles and had an interception.

“We’ve been excited to go out and hit somebody else. The kids had fun tonight and it showed,” El Modena coach Matt Mitchell said. “The defense played as a unit and we’ve been practicing that way so it was good to see.”

Owen Smith ran for 110 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown for El Modena. Sophomore quarterback Xzavior Guess ran for 108 yards on just nine carries with two touchdowns.

“We were hoping to establish the run a little bit with the passing game on top of it,” Mitchell said. “It was a good night and those big offensive linemen did a great job.”

Guess completed 10 of 12 passes for 75 yards with a touchdown and an interception in his first varsity start.

“He definitely can scoot,” Mitchell said of Guess. “He is learning the offense as we go. He had a good night tonight for his first game.”

El Modena sophomore quarterback Xzavior Guess completed 10 of 12 passes for 75yds with a TD and ran for 108 yards on 9 carries with 2TD.
El Modena 38, Santa Ana 0. @ocvarsity @ElmoHSAthletics @elmodenafb @XzaviorQB1 @SteveFryer @ocvarsityguy @OrangeUnifiedCA @PrepRedzoneCA pic.twitter.com/WGg0bneOWZ

— Michael Huntley (@mikehuntley63) August 26, 2022

Guess opened the game with a 33-yard touchdown run to put El Modena ahead 7-0 early in the first quarter.

Smith ran for a 2-yard touchdown on the opening drive of the second quarter to increase the lead to 14.

Blake Armstrong made a 31-yard field goal late in the second quarter to give the Vanguards a 17-0 lead at halftime.

Guess threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Zander Chaffin on El Modena’s first possession of the third quarter and had a 38-yard rushing touchdown on the ensuing drive to increase the lead to 31.

Mayson Hitchens ran for a 44-yard touchdown late in the third quarter to wrap up the scoring for the Vanguards.

Quarterback Sergio Torres ran for a team-high 44 yards and threw for 81 yards for Santa Ana (0-2). Joseph Foster led the Saints in receiving with 43 yards on four receptions.

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Stephen Hughes had an interception for Santa Ana and Fabian Navarro had a sack.

El Modena will host Sunny Hills on Friday, Sept. 2.

Santa Ana has started a season 0-2 for the first time since 2013. The Saints will be on the road next week against Garden Grove (Thursday, Sept. 1).