VALENCIA – The Saugus High football team mustered only 153 yards on offense in a 14-3 loss to Taft High School at College of the Canyons on Friday night.

Quarterback Zack Gauthier accounted for most of those yards, passing for 79 and rushing for 54. Manny Padron put the only points on the scoreboard for Saugus (1-3). He kicked a 27-yard field goal at the end of the first half.

Taft (2-2) wasn’t all that impressive offensively either. USC-bound running back D.J. Morgan had 130 yards on 23 carries and scored two touchdowns, but he fumbled three times. Only one of his fumbles was recovered by Saugus.

The rest of the Taft offense managed only 181 yards. Quarterback Antuan Goodall passed for 105 yards and threw an interception. He also rushed for 54 yards on 10 carries.

Taft scored on its opening drive. Morgan capped an 80-yard drive with a 31-yard touchdown run with 8:15 to play in the first quarter.

The score remained 7-0 for most of the first half before Padron kicked a field goal to cut Taft’s lead to 7-3 at halftime.

Saugus had its chances. Taft committed 17 penalties that accounted for 135 yards. Despite having good field position and seeing Taft drives stalled because of penalties, Saugus could not take advantage.

Gauthier had trouble connecting with receivers, going 5-for-12 passing and throwing an interception. His longest pass of the night was a 39-yarder to Padron.

Padron was the biggest offensive, defensive and special teams threat for Saugus. He caught two passes for 47 yards, picked off a pass by Goodall and scored the only points for his team with a field goal.

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