COSTA MESA — The Orange Lutheran football team spent the past week of practice focusing on its ground attack.

The extra emphasis on the running game paid off in the Lancers’ 26-20 victory over Damien in a nonleague game Friday at Orange Coast College.

Antonio Barrera and Noah Rodriguez combined for 140 rushing yards and both players scored a touchdown.

While the total yardage might not seem like a lot, the two seniors gained the yards in key situations.

“Coming off a loss last week (against Edison), we really wanted to go run-dominant this week,” Barrera said.

On Orange Lutheran’s first scoring drive of the game, Barrera had a 12-yard run, giving the Lancers (3-1) a first-and-goal at the Damien 9-yard line.

Barrera then got the handoff on three consecutive downs, gaining 4 yards and 2 yards before running for a 2-yard touchdown to give the Lancers a 7-0 lead.

The Lancers received the second-half kickoff and started from their own 20.

On a second-and-13 play, Rodriguez ran for 15 yards and then gained 22 yards on a second-and-10 from the Lancers 48.

Rodriguez ran for 22 yards again, this time on second-and-7 from the Spartans 27.

On a first-and-goal from the 5, Rodriguez gained 3 yards and scored on a 2-yard touchdown run on the next play to give Orange Lutheran a 26-13 lead.

With time becoming a factor in the fourth quarter, the Lancers defense forced an incompletion and a fourth-down play from the Orange Lutheran 17.

Damien (1-3) was out of timeouts when the Lancers took over on downs.

Barrera gained 11 yards on first down and put the game away with a five-yard run on second-and-four from the Spartans 48.

From there, the Lancers ran out the clock.

“We worked hard this week on being more physical,” Lancers coach Rod Sherman said. “And at the end, we showed more physicality. We were able to get a couple of first downs. I thought our run defense was really strong the whole game.”

With the victory, Orange Lutheran rebounded from its 34-13 defeat to Edison a week earlier.

“It’s a journey and we’ve made progress after last week and I feel good about the progress we’ve made,” Sherman said.

Damien’s two first-half touchdowns were scored on short fields that were both set up due to Lancers mistakes.

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After Dieter Kelly’s 39-yard field goal gave the Lancers a 10-0 lead, a long kickoff return coupled with a facemask penalty gave Damien the ball on the Orange Lutheran 34.

Damien scored one play later on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Dylan Gutierrez to Ayden Gutierrez.

The Lancers fumbled the ensuing kickoff return on their 26 and the Spartans converted the miscue into a 1-yard touchdown run from Dylan Gutierrez.