How historic was Orange Lutheran's upset win over national power St. John Bosco?

Orange Lutheran (Calif.) pulled off a historical shocker on Friday in taking down Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco in the first round of the CIF Div. 1 Southern Section playoffs. 

There are upsets and then there’s what happened Friday night when the Lancers stunned the top seeded Braves 20-19. It’s hard to put in to words just how shocking the win was for Orange Lutheran.

“I never saw it coming,” long time OC Register columnist Steve Fryer said. “When Dan Albano (OC Register) and I looked ahead to what games we wanted to cover, neither one of us even circled this one.

“There were so many other games that we thought would be more competitive after seeing what Bosco did to them the first time around. It’s one of the more shocking upsets I can remember.”

For more perspective, we checked in with Mark Tennis of CalHiSports, who has been covering California football since 1979. 

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the score,” Tennis said. “Obviously the weather was crazy and we saw low scoring games throughout the area but no one could have predicted that. 

“If you’re looking at the biggest opening round upsets of a top seed in the top division (Dev. 1), for me, you have to go way back to 1981 when Servite beat Edison 14-7. Edison had a 33 game winning streak and was going for their third straight Div. 1 Championship but I think this one is even bigger because of how dominant Bosco looked against Orange Lu earlier in the year.”  

The two teams met just a month ago in Trinity League action with Bosco beating Orange Lu 48-0. The Braves were ranked the No. 1 team in the nation at the time and looked unstoppable, with dominant play on both sides of the ball.  

They were rolling through Trinity League action and had a big non-league win over national power Baltimore (Md.) St. Francis. Meanwhile, Orange Lu struggled mightily during league play, winning just once and finished 5th in the six team league. 

The Braves did lose a heartbreaker to league rival Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei on Halloween night 36-31 in the final regular season game of the year but still earned the top seed in Division 1 and looked primed for a strong post-season run. 

The offense averaged 43 points a game led by talented sophomore quarterback Koa Malau’ulu and one of the nation’s top wide receiver corps led by Texas A&M commit Madden Williams, Oklahoma commit Daniel Odom, San Jose State commit Carson Clark and a super sophomore DJ Tubbs. 

Defensively, Oregon commit Dutch Horisk is one of the best pass rushers the school has produced, five linebackers have Power 4 offers and the secondary  is loaded as well with USC corner commit Josh Holland, standout ’27 corner Jailen Hill and four-star ’27 safety Isala Wily-Ava.

The Braves are extremely well coached, disciplined, don’t turn the ball over or commit needless penalties and consistently play hard. 

So how did the Lancers pull this off? Whenever you see an upset like this, there’s always a few plays that happen that are out of the norm. 

Offensively, the Braves never found much of a rhythm and the rainy conditions definitely impacted their passing game. Malau’ulu had thrown for over 200 yards in 7-10 games this season but threw for just 71 in this one, including a pick-6 on a deflection that gave Orange Lu the lead mid-way through the 4th quarter.

Braves kicker CJ Wallace, a Washington commit and one of the best kickers in the state, uncharacteristically missed a field goal and two extra points, the latter following a Madden Williams touchdown with 1:50 left in the game that would have tied things up.  

A ton of credit has to go to the Lancers and their coaching staff led by head coach Rod Sherman. It wasn’t like they played a perfect, error free game on their end. This wasn’t a March Madness special where a Cinderella team comes out and hits 20 three pointers leading to an upset.  

Orange Lu had a pair of turnovers, including one that led to a short Bosco touchdown in the 1st half, missed an extra point and had a punt blocked kicking out of their end zone that led to the late Bosco touchdown. 

What they did was play extremely hard, especially defensively, hit a big play on offense with quarterback Reagan Toki hitting standout receiver Nico Bland for a 67 yard touchdown and never looked overwhelmed by the moment. 

Despite getting smoked earlier in the year, the Lancers came in to this one playing loose and free and didn’t look the least bit intimidated. So many times when a team matches up with Braves, the game is over before it starts because the other team plays scared and turtles at the first sign of adversity. 

Orange Lu played Bosco twice a year ago and both games were very competitive. They lost 28-24 in league play in a game they led for much of the contest and then 20-17 in a semi-final playoff that could have gone either way.

Make no mistake, Orange Lu has a talented roster who can play as well. Half of their starting lineup are college prospects, they’re big up front and have a talented secondary that matched up well.

Auma Jennings and Marcus Fakatou were a load up front, linebacker Christian Panapa flashed throughout, safety Chauncey Washington was active on the back end and corner King Rich Johnson had the big pick-6.

Northwestern running back commit Sean Morris had a breakout game, rushing for 124 tough yards and is the kind of downhill banger you need to compete against a rugged defense like the Braves.

There’s a great line from the famous Herb Brooks speech from the movie, ‘Miracle,’ right before the USA National Hockey team played the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics;

“One game. If we played ’em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight.”

Orange Lu hadn’t beaten Bosco since 2010 but on a wet, rainy night in Bellflower, the Lancers pulled off the miracle and are now just one win away from playing for the Division 1 Championship.