Orange Lutheran High does not have an easy game on its schedule. MaxPreps ranked the school's schedule as the toughest in the nation, as it faces off against five opponents in the website's preseason national top 25 rankings.
The first three weeks have been a true gauntlet.
It started with an away game in Florida against Miami Central High, the seventh-best team in the state, according to MaxPreps. Orange Lutheran only lost by one point.
After beating the 15th-best team in California, San Diego Cathedral, last week 38-24, the Lancers faced its biggest test yet: Chandler (Ariz.) Basha, the No. 1 team in Arizona, and ranked 12th nationally. Orange Lutheran is the eighth-ranked team in California and 61st nationally.
A 30-24 loss to Basha last season still hung in the air around Orange Coast College on Friday night, and it looked like Orange Lutheran would be in for another one after Basha senior quarterback and Princeton commit Jake Rogers threw a 62-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Jaden Baldwin on the third play of their first drive.
However, because they didn't make this season easy on themselves, Orange Lutheran (2-1) has a prime directive to make things as hard as possible on opponents. A 23-17 win Friday suggested they followed through on that goal.
Read more: How the top 25 high school football teams in the Southland fared this week
Up next is Gardena Serra (2-1), the 40th-ranked team in California that is coming off a 34-23 victory over Los Alamitos. Closing out the nonleague schedule is a game against Sierra Canyon (2-0), which is ranked No. 4 in the Southland by The Times.
After the first quarter, Basha was not able to do anything effective on offense.
Every possession in the third quarter was a three-and-out, with one resulting in a punt out of the end zone. Basha had a bad snap, giving Orange Lutheran two points.
Beyond that, twin brothers and juniors Anhor The Great Johnson and King Rich Johnson swarmed everything that Basha tried to do.
It started with a 75-yard pick-six from King Rich on a snaking sideline return that gave Orange Lutheran a lead they never conceded.
Anhor The Great had so many pass breakups that counting would've been a fool's errand.
Defensive line bat downs and sacks haunted Rogers, who finished the game with 192 yards passing and two touchdowns with two interceptions as well as a less than 50% completion on passes and two interceptions.
Senior lineman Lucas Rhoa got to watch this all unfold from the sidelines, and he was truly in awe after the game.
"One of the best defensive games I've seen," he said. "Really, two big plays and three other points [is all Basha got]. We couldn't do it without them, because we only put up 23 points."
The only score given up in the second half was a 30-yard pass from Rogers to senior running back Noah Roberts. It gave the Bears life for the first time since the half. It was also Roberts' only big play on a night where he averaged less than two yards per carry.
It was senior night for Orange Lutheran, with emotions flowing around Orange Coast College stadium all night, but it was a sophomore running back who had the most explosive performance.
Ryan Christianson finished with 151 yards rushing and one touchdown on 31 rushes. He was buoyed by Rhoa and a strong offensive line performance.
"Our running back is amazing, he did amazing things," he said. "I'm proud of the way we played tonight, but there's so much more we could clean up. So many points were left on the board. If we clean it up we're going to be very good."
First year head coach Ray Fenton inherited this insane schedule, but he probably would've booked the same battles. Many of his players will be playing Division I football on Saturdays, so why not test them now?
Plus, Orange Lutheran plays in the Trinity League. With highly ranked schools such as St. John Bosco, Mater Dei and Santa Margarita on the schedule, playing weak schools in nonleague games does nothing but harm Orange Lutheran's talented roster.
"We can't hide from our league, it's like the SEC of high school football," Fenton said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .
