The story had its beginning the year before. The Friars and Monarchs came into the 1963 game unbeaten at 5-0. Servite was the highest scoring team in Orange County. There was a huge wave of excitement about this game. In addition to the normal Pep Rally, there was a spontaneous lunch time conga line that found almost the entire student body winding its way through the halls, up and down all three staircases, and out into the quad and back. The single file line was chanting “Go Servite, beat the Monarchs” non-stop, over and over, in a chant-like manner. Unfortunately, come game time, the Friars were so keyed up that they made costly mental errors and wound up losing 20-7.
Fast forward to the week leading up to the 1964 game. Coach George Dena decreed that there should be no such rallies or demonstrations for this game. There were to be no mental errors. The players were told to treat this game like any other game and to go about winning it in a workman-like manner.
Once again both teams were unbeaten at 5-0. Not only that, the Monarchs were unscored upon! The game was at La Palma Stadium before a sellout crowd of 10,000 fans. The Friars controlled the game behind the power running of Fullback Rick Aschenbrenner ’65, who ripped off 139 yards on 26 carries, and scored the only TD of the 1st half. QB Marc Woods ’65 added a one-yard TD run in the 3rd quarter, making the score 13-0. Those were the only points scored on Mater Dei the entire season!
It was a workman-like performance behind a powerful offensive line anchored by Phil Messer ’65 and Tony Pena ’65, and a defense that would not allow the Monarchs to get inside the Friar 37-yard line. Servite Coach George Dena, who was carried off the field, called it “Servite’s greatest victory.” Mater Dei’s Coach Dick Coury said, “We could have played all night and not scored, the way Servite’s defense was playing…They just plain physically beat us.”
Friar fans stormed the field. The Friars had arrived! Servite went on to be Angelus League Champions and finished the regular season 9-0, ranked #1 in Orange County.
