Irvine Beats Aliso Niguel, 35-20

Aliso Niguel went into Saturday’s Sea View League debut hoping to make a statement. Instead, it was Irvine that delivered a message. It went something like, “Welcome, now take this.”

Irvine dished out a 35-20 defeat to the new kids in the neighborhood in front of about 1,500 at Irvine High.

The Vaqueros made big plays on offense, defense and special teams and avoided the unenviable fate of having two losses in a four-game league schedule.

Irvine is 4-2-1 overall, 1-1 in league. Aliso Niguel, which played in the Pacific Coast League last year, is 4-3, 0-1.

“If we lost, we might not be able to go to the playoffs,” said Irvine quarterback Mike Ricci, who made sure the Vaqueros stayed out of that predicament by completing 15 of 18 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns. “We came out with so much intensity.”

Ricci completed his first 11 passes, totaling 162 yards, as the Vaqueros took a 21-14 halftime lead.

But Ricci got a lot of help, especially from Keith Short.

Not only did Short rush 20 times for 148 yards and two touchdowns, but he blocked a punt out of bounds at the five-yard line, then ran in on the next play to give Irvine a 14-6 lead.

That wasn’t all. When Aliso Niguel’s Iman Nikzad ran 61 yards to pull the Wolverines within 21-20 three minutes into the third quarter, Short blocked Stephen Berneking’s point-after attempt to protect the lead.

Short also had one of three fourth-quarter interceptions by Irvine defenders; the others were from Eric Patton and Jessob Reisbeck, who also kicked Irvine’s extra points.

“They got more big plays than we did, and we didn’t do a good job of stopping them,” said Aliso Niguel Coach Joe Wood. “We broke down in our kicking game.

“They beat us.”

Ricci celebrated the return of his best friend and favorite receiver, James Whitted, who missed four games with a knee injury. He caught five passes for 91 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown that provided the final margin.

Ricci praised his offensive line, which allowed only one sack. Ricci also completed touchdown passes of 27 yards to Patton and 15 to Martin Rovira.

Aliso Niguel added two more long touchdowns, Nikzad’s run and a 66-yard pass from Smith to Brandon Alconcel, giving it 10 scores of 60 or more yards this season. But the Wolverines couldn’t sustain drives, which prevented them from chewing up yardage or the clock.

Nikzad (22 carries, 127 yards) paid the price at the line of scrimmage, getting hammered by Brandon Mendoza, Travis Potter and Dave Vallandigham; Nikzad had only one carry over nine yards.