October 29, it was a Thursday night in the fall of 1964. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 53 years since that night. The night the undefeated Servite Friars beat the undefeated and previously unscored upon Mater Dei Monarchs 13-0. The hype surrounding the big game was intense, even though this rivalry was still in its infancy. My fellow teammates and I were excited and anxious to face this heavily touted team. Some of us had played on the JV team that beat Mater Dei and went on to an undefeated Angelus League Championship in 1963. Meanwhile, the varsity team lost a heartbreaker 9 to 7. So, needless to say, this was the highlight game of the season for all of us, especially many of the seniors who had never beaten the Monarchs in a varsity contest.
We played our home games in Glover Stadium in La Palma Park in those days. We had a standing room only crowd of some 10,000 enthusiastic fans attending the game. I remember the nervous excitement and pride as we performed the now legendary “Hut Drill”, invented by our great Coach George Dena (In the early days we only performed the “Hut Drill” before the game). Even though Mater Dei had yet to be scored upon all season, the starting backfield of Marc Woods ‘65 (QB), Jim Sheridan ‘65 (RB), Rick Aschenbrenner ‘65 (FB) and Frank Daley ‘65 (Slotback) proved to be unstoppable as they outgained the Monarchs 252 to 27 yards rushing. Marc Woods was a highly regarded passing QB, but because our ground game was so devastating, he only had to pass for 22 yards. Our stingy defense led by Phil Messer ’65 (DL) Tony Pena ’65 (LB), Mike Pena ’66 (LB) and Andy Ganahl ’66 (DB) held Mater Dei to just 105 yards in total offense. Up to that point in the season, the Monarchs had averaged 254 yards on the ground alone. One of the stars for Mater Dei was Bruce Rollinson, the current head coach of the Monarchs.
When the smoke cleared and the battle was over, we had emerged victorious over Mater Dei for the first time in histroy and carried Coach Dena out of the stadium on our shoulders. We had beaten the “Mighty” Monarchs, and not just beaten them, but had shut them out 13-0. Needless to say, we were all ecstatic and carried our celebration to Parry’s Pizza in Fullerton, a regular post-game hangout. It was the most memorable victory I had experienced in my four years of playing football for Servite High School. We went on to an undefeated regular season and an Angelus League Championship. Ultimately, we lost to Anaheim High School in the first round of the CIF playoffs. In a game billed as Coach Vs Player, Coach Dena went up against his high school football coach and mentor, the legendary Claire Van Hoorbeke. Coach Dena went on to be named Orange County Coach of the Year at the end of the season.
October 29, 1964 will be etched in my memory forever.
We Are…Forever Friars!
Fernando, I really enjoyed this article as it was simple and straight to the the point as was our approach to the game that night . I told everyone that Mater Dei would not score on us that night and we would emerge victorious. You knew I rarely said much except to call the defense as I had done as a junior and make my cross blocking calls with Mike Meers on offense. We were ready, steady and magnificent that fateful evening and forced them to do what they didn’t want to on their side of the of the 50 all night! Our TEAM won it and Dick Coury himself, in the first words out of him, told me years later, we beat the best team he ever had. What an honor to hear that from a great man and coach. The Monarchs gave up only 13 points that season! to us! Servite Football!
A number of the players on that team have become close friends of mine and my brother, Mike; Tony Gardea, and Ray Hernandez who are as close as brothers to me. My son, Tony III’s number is retired in the MD Hall of Fame for Football and Baseball. Servite-Mater Dei Great Programs, Great High Schools.
On behalf of all my teammates and all our classmates who supported us , Pitched a “13-0” shutout, 9-1 season, Angelus League Champs, #1 OC! y’all earned it! TP #40