Former Tustin High football coach Myron Miller (left) is shown coaching during his final season in 2018. At right is junior DB Khalil Terry, who has been a starter since his freshman season and is one of the state’s top Class of 2027 recruits. Photos: Fernando M. Donado / For OC Sports Zone & @Tiller_Football / X.com.
This upcoming season’s team at Tustin High in Orange County looks loaded. If the algorithms work in their favor and the Tillers land in a winnable CIF Southern Section playoff division (not D1), some history could be achieved. We now have all the history figured out as Tustin’s all-time scores since 1922 have been digitized thanks to an order by a community member and thanks to the Cal-Hi Sports card collection compiled by the late Bruce McIntosh. Tustin’s history includes having been coached by the winningest head coach in CIFSS history and having perhaps its best team ever led by the current head coach at UCLA.
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In the more than 100 years of football that has been played at Tustin High in Orange County, there’s been one perfect season and two CIF Southern Section championships. But my oh my have the Tillers been close to other championships and there’s been some championship-level teams, including two that were 13-0 and 12-0, that just came up short in the playoffs.
The first games in the Tustin archive are shown for the 1922 season. The school didn’t have that much football success until the 1940s. The 1943 team, in fact, that ended 6-0 after a 49-0 win vs Brea Olinda and coached by Russ Sullivan during World War II, is still the only unbeaten and untied team in school history. The Tillers also went 4-0-2 (5-0-2 counting a forfeit) for an unbeaten season in 1940. Later in the decade, Tustin captured its first CIF Southern Section title with a 20-13 win in the Southern Division championship over Vista. Teams in those days didn’t play as many games so it was a title team with a 7-2 final record.
UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster is shown during 2024 ceremony at Tustin when he was inducted into school’s Hall of Fame. Photo: tustintillerfootball / Instagram.com.
Still the most famous game in Tustin history and still regarded as one of the best in Orange County history was the 1997 CIFSS Division V championship when the Tillers were 13-0 and were facing 13-0 Santa Margarita of Rancho Santa Margarita. It was one of the first 13-0 vs 13-0 matchups in state history and it was a shootout of epic proportions.
When the dust finally settled, Santa Margarita had emerged with a 55-42 victory. Tustin senior running back DeShaun Foster still had a game for the ages with 378 yards rushing and six touchdowns. The problem is that Santa Margarita QB Carson Palmer did the same and finished with 413 yards passing and five touchdowns.
The Tillers (13-1) still ended No. 13 overall in the final state rankings. Foster set the state record at the time by scoring 59 touchdowns. It’s still No. 3 on the all-time state list. He also set the CIFSS single-season record with 3,398 rushing yards, but didn’t get the state record because a small school phenom from that same season up north, John Bordenkircher from Dixon High, had 3,416 yards. Foster’s single season total is still in the top 15 in state history.
Foster later enjoyed a career in the NFL as a running back and is now known of course as the head coach at UCLA. He was the 1997 Mr. Football State Player of the Year. Palmer, still perhaps the best high school QB we’ve ever seen in person, then went on to win the Heisman Trophy at USC and had a long career in the NFL. Check out his career numbers and they are in Hall of Fame territory. Palmer is going to be the head coach back at Santa Margarita beginning for the 2025 season.
Tustin had another 13-0 team that lost in a CIFSS final and that took place in 1990. It was not a shootout at all and instead came in a 7-3 defensive slugfest with Sunny Hills of Fullerton.
There also was a 12-0 team in 2012 that was looking to repeat as CIFSS Southwest Division champions, but the Tillers were upset in the semifinals, 35-34, by Villa Park.
In the 2011 season, the team won its second CIFSS title by downing El Toro of Lake Forest, 35-28, in the Southwest Division final. Those divisional finals were played at Anaheim Stadium as part of a doubleheader with the major division championship later in the evening. In that game, Edward Tandy came up with a 52-yard interception return touchdown that gave Tustin a 28-21 lead in the third quarter. Later, after a Treshon Broughton interception stopped El Toro from potentially tying the score or winning, Tandy was the one who rushed for a first down on a 4th-and-2 from the team’s own 23-yard line that clinched the victory.
Going for it on that type of play was typical of when the Tustin program was led by head coach Myron Miller. He was the one who used primarily a double-wing rushing attack to put up huge offensive totals. Miller was Tustin’s head coach from 2005 to 2012, then stepped back when he became athletic director in 2013. He came back to be the head coach from 2016 to 2018 and since then Anthony Lopez (a previous assistant under Miller) has been the team’s head coach.
Miller’s team in 2001 posted on-the-field wins of 92-0 over Ocean View of Huntington Beach and 78-7 over Saddleback of Santa Ana. Both of those league wins, and a third one, however, were later reversed to forfeit losses and the team’s official 4-6 record (we list it 7-3 on-the-field) was not enough to get it into the CIFSS playoffs.
Tustin’s head coach from 1984 to 1992 was the legendary Marijon Ancich, who is more known for his many years at St. Paul of Santa Fe Spring. His son, Dusan, was the head coach at Villa Park when it beat Tustin in the 2012 playoff game. Marijon, who died in his early 80s in 2018, retired at St. Paul after the 2005 season with 344 career wins. That is still the coaching wins record for the CIFSS and is still second in state history, trailing only the 399 by Concord De La Salle’s Bob Ladoucuer (1979-2012).
Ancich was the head coach of the 1990 team that lost to Sunny Hills in a CIFSS final and his team in 1991 also fell in the 1991 CIFSS D6 championship. In that game, the Tillers lost to Valencia of Placentia, 27-7, a school that they ironically have dominated over the years.
Lopez got his first taste of taking a tough CIFSS playoff lost just two years ago. The Tillers posted a 10-0 regular season but in their first CIFSS D3 playoff game they lost 34-33 on a last-second field goal by Warren of Downey, which would go all the way to the title game where it lost, 24-21, to St. Bonaventure of Ventura.
Last year’s squad at Tustin kept up the momentum with a 9-2 record and won the first-ever Delta League title. That team also was in the CIFSS D3 playoffs, but lost in the first round, 30-13, to Loyola of Los Angeles.
This year’s team must replace graduated running back star Eimesse Essis (1,807 yds, 20 TDs), but has a plethora of returning talent, especially on defense. Juniors Taven Epps (LB) and Jon Ioane (DL) are both getting D1 major college interest. Junior Khalil Terry (DB) led the team in interceptions with four and had 52 tackles and also is a big-time recruit. Jeremiah Williams (6-1, 300) also had 16 tackles for loss and is yet another from the team’s junior class who is highly coveted by colleges.
Here are some other Tustin High football records that the school now has in its possession courtesy of this archive initiative:
DL Jon Ioane (6-3, 290) also played quarterback for Tustin as a sophomore during the 2024 season. Photo: @Tiller_Football / X.com.
WIN-LOSS RECORDS FOR EACH DECADE
(Starting in 1920s)
1920s 23-37-2
1930s 46-37-10 (+1 forfeit)
1940s 51-18-3 (+2 forfeits)
1950s 47-39-5
1960s 43-41-6
1970s 19-64-6
1980s 47-56-2
1990s 76-43-1
2000s 75-46-0 (-3 forfeits)
2010s 77-44-0
2020s 33-17-0
REPORTED ALL-TIME RECORD ON THE FIELD ENTERING 2025 SEASON
537 WINS, 442 LOSSES, 37 TIES (counting forfeit wins & losses, three each, the record would be 540-445-37)
Longest Win Streaks
21-0 Last 8 of 2011, First 13 of 2012
13-0 First 13 of 1990
13-0 First 13 of 1997
Longest Losing Streaks
0-18 Last 5 of 1970, 0-9 in 1971, First 4 of 1972
0-14 Last 6 of 1993, First 8 of 1994
Most Points Scored Single Game
92 Vs Ocean View of Huntington Beach (0), 2001*
*Later changed to forfeit loss.
82 Vs Santa Ana (19), 1996
82 Vs Western of Anaheim (7), 2014
81 Vs Ocean View of Huntington Beach (22), 2000
78 Vs Ocean View of Huntington Beach (7), 1999
78 Vs Saddleback of Santa Ana (7), 2001*
**Later changed to forfeit loss.
76 Vs Magnolia of Anaheim (26), 2007
75 Vs Buena Park (20), 2010
74 Vs Dana Hills of Dana Point (14), 2015
71 Vs Foothill of Tustin (28), 1998
71 Vs Santa Ana (7), 2000
71 Vs Westminster (0), 2000
Biggest Wins
92-0 Vs Ocean View of Huntington Beach, 2001*
*Later changed to forfeit loss.
82-7 Vs Western of Anaheim, 2014
78-7 Vs Ocean View of Huntington Beach, 1999
71-0 Vs Westminster, 2000
71-7 Vs Santa Ana, 2000
64-0 Vs Brea Olinda, 2008
82-19 Vs Santa Ana, 1996
63-0 Vs Huntington Beach, 2009
60-0 Vs Canyon (Anaheim), 1997
Most Points Allowed Single Game
69 Vs Canyon of Anaheim (6), 1983
57 Vs Los Altos of Hacienda Heights (25), 2003
56 Vs Alhambra (0), 1923
56 Vs Trabuco Hills of Mission Viejo (16), 2022
55 Vs Santa Margarita of Rancho SM (42), 1997
52 Vs Palm Desert (27), 2022
Biggest Losses
69-6 Vs Canyon (Anaheim), 1983
56-0 Vs Alhambra, 1923
49-0 Vs Servite (Anaheim), 1995
Remember, any school in the state can have this research finished in a customized fashion in return for a reasonable fee. For details, CLICK HERE.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
