PREP FOOTBALL : Los Alamitos Defense Shuts Out Loara for Share of League Title

Los Alamitos High School’s defense dominated as the Griffins rolled past Loara, 20-0, to clinch at least a tie for the Empire League football title Thursday in front of about 1,000 at Glover Stadium.

Los Alamitos’ defense was most impressive, allowing Loara across midfield only once.

Loara got the Griffin 47 in the second quarter, but that was its deepest drive of the game. Loara was held to minus-1 yard rushing on 25 carries. Loara had 48 yards in total offense in the game.

Los Alamitos sacked Loara quarterback Jeff Gordon 5 times for minus-38 yards and pressured him on several other occasions.

It was the fifth shutout for Los Alamitos (8-0-1 overall and 4-0 in league play) this season. Los Alamitos opened the season with a 28-28 tie with Kennedy but has allowed only 24 points in its last 8 games.

A strong defense is hardly news for Los Alamitos. Last season, the Griffins allowed 27 points in the regular season.

“Our defense was just awesome,” Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes said. “They pretty much carried us. . . . I figured this would be our toughest game all season because they are such a well-coached team.”

Los Alamitos, which is ranked second in the Southern Section poll Division III behind Mission Viejo, plays Cypress next Thursday for a chance to win the league title outright.

If Los Alamitos loses next week and Katella or El Dorado wins its final 2 games then there would be a tie for the league title. But, because Los Alamitos has beaten Katella and El Dorado this season, the Griffins would advance to the playoffs as the No. 1 team from the league.

Last season, Los Alamitos advanced to the Southern Conference championship game but lost to El Toro. Los Alamitos returned only 3 starters from that team and only 1 on defense.

“At the start of the year, I figured this team would be 5-5 or 6-4 at best if we played together,” Barnes said. “This is unbelievable. Here we are a game away from an undefeated season and that’s something I’ve never been a part of before.”

Los Alamitos took the ball to open the second half and drove 70 yards to the Loara 5 but had to settle for a 25-yard field goal from Park with 9:08 left in the third quarter.

Eric Caesar scored the final touchdown on a 2-yard drive over the middle with 8:48 left in the final quarter. The play ended 5-play, 36-yard drive that was set up after a poor Loara punt.

The big play came when Todd Gragnano completed a 21-yard pass to Ron Monninger to get the ball to the Loara 2. Monninger caught 6 passes for 112 yards.

Gragnano, a senior, was 13 for 21 for 181 yards and Caesar had 62 yards in 18 carries.

Los Alamitos took a 10-0 lead in the first half on a 37-yard field goal by Chris Park at 5:22 of the second quarter. Gragnano threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Eric Thompson with 2:06 left in the second quarter.

Los Alamitos controlled much of the first half but Gragnano was intercepted twice on the Loara goal line, once in each quarter.

Loara is 5-3-1, 1-2-1.