Head coach Carson Palmer and players at Santa Margarita were fired up after they defeated St. John Bosco of Bellflower on Friday in a matchup of teams ranked first and second in the state. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
An interception return TD by sophomore Rayshawn Brandon plus a flea-flicker TD pass from junior Fletch Palmer lifted the state No. 1 ranked Eagles to a 21-7 win on Friday in Bellflower over No. 2 St. John Bosco. It would have be called a statement win for the program for many reasons, mainly since it marked the first win against the Braves since 2011. Santa Margarita also adds win vs Bosco to earlier wins over both state No. 6 Centennial of Corona and No. 4 Mater Dei of Santa Ana.
Associate editor Harold Abend contributed to this report.
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An improving offense with a defense that has been locked in since the first week is a formula that the Santa Margarita High football team used quite successfully last season in its run to the school’s first-ever CIF Open Division state title.
This year, especially after Friday’s 21-7 victory over St. John Bosco of Bellflower, in a matchup of teams that were No. 1 and No. 2 in most state rankings, including the Cal-Hi Sports State TOP 50 rankings, the Eagles are on that same path again. The big difference, though, is that this year’s team didn’t drop an early season game or two like the 2025 Eagles did.
Santa Margarita, like last year, has played strong opponents in its regular season schedule. The 2025 unit lost its first game to Mission Viejo, won in a matchup vs Centennial, but then had losses to Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas and St. John Bosco before things really picked up, particularly as eventual Mr. Football State Player of the Year Trent Mosley got going after missing time with an injury.
This year’s group came into Friday’s game with a one-point win against Centennial and a 14-7 victory over the other Trinity League team that dominated the state along with Bosco from 2016 to 2024, Mater Dei of Santa Ana. The host Braves haven’t played Mater Dei yet, but had a 38-28 loss to Bishop Gorman with blowouts in its other non-league games and a pair of Trinity League victories vs JSerra and Orange Lutheran.
Fletch Palmer, a junior, won the starting job at quarterback for Santa Margarita this year in fall preseason practices. He wears the same number his dad, Carson, the team’s head coach, wore during his years playing for the school. Photo: Mark Tennis.
“We came on the road and got a great win,” said Santa Margarita second-year head coach Carson Palmer. “They are a great team, they had their student section rocking and this is a great venue. We came in really poised and composed.”
St. John Bosco, which had not lost to Santa Margarita since 2011 for a streak counting the playoffs of 16 games, started strong in Friday’s contest. The Braves capitalized on a muffed punt recovered by sophomore Joshua Laird after the offense had been stopped on its first series. After first down run by senior Maliq Allen and a missed pass on a trick play, junior QB Koa Malau’ulu fired a bullet to sophomore Kai Moaalii for a 28-yard touchdown. There were some other opportunities later on, but that wound up as Bosco’s only touchdown of the night.
The Santa Margarita offense also had to punt after its second series, but after the Braves got the ball back Malau’ulu made a bad decision to throw a ball into tight coverage coming out of a possible sack. The pass was intercepted by sophomore Rayshawn Brandon at the 45-yard line, who weaved back down the field and took the return all the way for a 55-yard touchdown.
“That was huge,” Palmer said. “That was right after we turned it over on our punt and it helped because we had only had two drives on offense into the second quarter.”
The Santa Margarita defense gave the offense, which had no first downs in its first three possessions, another chance early in the second quarter on another interception, this one by junior Ca’ron Williams, who has had a penchant for making big plays in big games the past two seasons. That interception was cashed in with a 1-yard touchdown by sophomore Adrian Petero, who had 13 TDs on the season coming into the night. Junior QB Fletch Palmer earlier had an 11-yard pass completion and a 15-yard scramble run to set up the score.
On its final series of the first half, Bosco looked to tie the score and moved the ball to the Eagles’ 20-yard line on passes of 29 and 24 yards by Malau’ulu to junior Jacob Reid and Moaalii. A second down pass was deflected in the end zone by junior Jake Martin of Santa Margarita and then after a third down incompletion it was Martin who broke through the line and blocked a 37-yard field goal attempt.
In the third quarter, after both teams went three-and-out on their first two series after halftime, the Santa Margarita offense went for a trick play, a so-called flea flicker with Palmer handing the ball to Petero, who pitched it back to him. He then threw a pass toward junior Grant Mosley, who broke free of the Bosco secondary and hauled in a 49-yard touchdown pass.
Now trailing by two scores, the Bosco offense was then put into the position of having to mostly throw to get closer to the Eagles. That’s just not going to work against the Santa Margarita, which can then even more unleash its pass rush. One Bosco drive ended on a sack by sophomore Kingston Jimmerson. The Braves’ offense only had one first down in the entire second half.
The Eagles wound up not scoring again, either, but ate up enough clock and picked up enough first downs that also limited the opportunities of the Braves to have enough possessions to even have a chance to get back into the game.
Kuika Moaalii had the only TD for St. John Bosco in its loss to Santa Margarita and is one of the top sophomore receivers in the state. Photo: Mark Tennis.
Both the head coach and his son, the quarterback, agreed that the key to the season so far has been the improving offense to go with the defense that has been dominant all season even with several freshmen, led by linebacker Aydan Steen and safety Jayden Jack, playing key roles.
“Grant came back two weeks ago, he was on a limit of minutes last week but then tonight we let him go,” Coach Palmer said about the return of Mosley from an off-season injury.
“We’re just going out there day in and day out looking to work hard and get better,” the junior quarterback Palmer added. “We feel we have the best group of receivers in the nation and we want to have the attitude that we can beat anybody on any given night.”
Palmer ended the night 10 of 19 passing for 157 yards. He didn’t have positive rushing yards due to sacks being counted against it. Mosley had five catches for 82 yards and freshman Kiyan Callis had four catches for 61 yards. Steen had two sacks on defense.
For the Braves, Malau’ulu had the early TD pass but only had 106 yards passing for the game. Simote Tupou had a pair of sacks on defense during one series for Santa Margarita in the second half that forced a punt.
In addition to ending a long losing streak to the Braves, the win on Friday marked the first time since 2010 when Santa Margarita had been able to beat both Mater Dei and Bosco in the same season. They were guided in those 2010-11 seasons by former head coach Harry Welch, known famously as the only head coach in state history to win CIF state titles at three different schools.
St. John Bosco head coach Jason Negro departed the field quickly after the loss, but met up with the Long Beach Press-Telegram later on and stressed that his group is eager to put the loss behind them and prepare for the final two games and get ready for a run in the CIF Southern Section D1 playoffs. He’s also been around plenty of seasons to know that his own team and Mater Dei have come back to win it all (CIFSS D1 and CIF Open Division titles) after suffering a bad loss in the regular season.
“We have a proud group,” he told the paper. “In the locker room after the game there our kids are pretty fired up, in order to get back to work (Saturday) and see what we can do to improve on some things.”
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