PREP FOOTBALL : Angelus League : Just Another Night for Brown: 5 Scores as Servite Rolls On

In his 3 seasons at Servite High School, the extraordinary has slowly but surely faded into the accepted norm for Derek Brown.

Thursday night, Brown, a senior running back, wrecked what was supposed to be a close, hard-fought game with Servite’s rival, Mater Dei.

When it was over, Servite had defeated Mater Dei, 42-24, in front of 9,000 in Santa Ana Stadium.

“That was a Derek Brown show,” Mater Dei Coach Chuck Gallo said.

It began with the opening kickoff, which Brown returned 96 yards for a touchdown, and ended with 246 yards rushing in 21 carries. In between, Brown rushed for 4 touchdowns--of 54, 53, 20 and 12 yards--and squashed any hopes Mater Dei had of stopping him.

He has had bigger games rushing. A 334-yard, 4-touchdown performance against Mater Dei as a sophomore keyed a 44-12 Servite victory that clinched a playoff berth. He had 312 yards and 2 touchdowns in a showdown against Crespi and its great back, Russell White, earlier this season.

Neither of those games matched the importance of Thursday night’s contest. The Angelus League championship was at stake and, thanks to Brown, Servite clinched a share of the title.

Servite (8-2 overall, 3-1 in league play) can advance as the league’s No. 1 representative to the Division I playoffs if Bishop Amat (2-1 in league play) beats St. Paul (2-1) tonight.

Mater Dei (5-5, 2-2) also must wait to see which berth it gets, but it has clinched a playoff spot regardless of the outcome of the Bishop Amat-St. Paul game.

When Brown was running Thursday night, talk of playoff berths and championships seemed to be put on hold.

“I’m oh so happy to see him graduate,” Gallo said. “I’d pay for his college education. He must have run for 700 yards in his 3 games against us.”

High praise from the vanquished. And from the winners.

“I have to say this,” said Chris Johnson, Servite quarterback who ran 40 yards for a touchdown of his own in the second quarter. “Derek Brown is the best running back in the Southern Section far and away, hands down.”

The kickoff return got Servite started in the right direction. Oscar Ford took it at the 4-yard line, ran a couple of steps and handed it to Brown on a reverse. Brown weaved through Mater Dei tacklers and picked up a big block from Ford at the Monarch 40 that freed him for the score.

“We needed something like that,” Brown said. “We’ve come out in the first quarter of the last few games a little lazy.”

If Mater Dei was down after the score, it didn’t show. The Monarchs came back with an 80-yard scoring drive, capped by Kealli Clifford’s 1-yard run.

Servite led, 28-10, at halftime and extended it to 42-10 at the end of the third quarter, before sending in the substitutes.

Clifford rushed for 65 yards in 14 carries, including another 1-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, and Danny O’Neil completed 14 of 30 passes for 258 yards and 1 touchdown, but Brown overshadowed all others Thursday.

“He sure can do some incredible things,” Servite Coach Jerry Person said.

ORANGE COUNTY CAREER RUSHING

Player Yrs Yds 1 Ray Pallares / Valencia 83-85 5,398 2 Robert Lee / Santa Ana 85-87 4,401 3 Derek Brown / Servite 86-88 4,203 4 Myron White / Santa Ana Valley 72-74 4,164 5 Ross Bauer / El Modena 84-86 3,764