La Habra’s Streak Ends With String of Turnovers

It was one loss at the end of 12 consecutive victories. A handful of bad plays stacked against a season’s worth of great ones.

La Habra High battled West Covina South Hills right to the end of their Southern Section Division IX championship game Friday night, but all that mattered was the scoreboard at Covina District Stadium, which displayed La Habra’s 19-14 loss.

It was the Huskies’ first section title in 20 years.

“We wanted the ring,” La Habra running back Brent West said. “Nothing else matters right now.”

The fourth-seeded Highlanders had the will to win their first section title but couldn’t overcome four second-half interceptions. La Habra also hurt itself with penalties on two long touchdowns on the same drive midway through the second half

La Habra Coach Frank Mazzotta said the interceptions and nullified touchdowns were damaging, but they were just a part the missed opportunities.

“We made about 18 million mistakes otherwise,” he said. “But it would have been nice to have one of those scores.”

The second-seeded Huskies (13-1) trailed, 14-13, at the half, but intercepted passes from quarterback Mike Keeling on two of the Highlanders’ first three drives.

South Hills didn’t capitalize on the first turnover, but did on the second, taking over at the Highlander 36 following a diving interception by defensive back Jason Murray. Four plays later, Murray scored on a diving 12-yard reception for a 19-14 lead with 3:10 remaining in the third quarter.

La Habra (12-2), which was playing in its first title game in 17 years, had two touchdowns called back on the ensuing drive, and South Hills then killed the Highlanders’ final two possessions with interceptions.

“Our kids have a really good instinct to close on the ball,” South Hills Coach Steve Bogan said. “At the end it really paid off.”

South Hills quarterback Chris Eadie began the game in the shotgun formation, hitting Murray for an early nine-yard gain on third and five, then turning a quarterback sneak into a 24-yard gain on fourth and inches from the La Habra 40.

After two incomplete passes, South Hills ran an inside handoff to Jaron Fairman, who bounced outside, eluded the tackle of Pascual Alvarez and then dived for the pylon.

Murray’s 41-yard punt return on the Huskies’ second possession set up a 27-yard field goal by Adrian Rosales.

Rosales kept the Highlanders from making any big plays on special teams by sending his kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks. La Habra, which had returned two kickoffs for touchdowns in the playoffs, managed only one first down on each of its first two possessions.

La Habra’s offense finally got rolling early in the second quarter, converting two third-down plays and then scoring on a 41-yard strike from Keeling to Jonathan Tapia.

That seemed to fire up the defense, which finally stopped South Hills with an interception by Alvarez at midfield. Alvarez made several nice moves, cutting back across the field before finally getting tackled at the South Hills three-yard line.

West ran it in on the next play and La Habra moved ahead, 14-13, lead with 3:51 remaining in the first half.

“We weren’t worried at halftime,” said Eadie, who completed 21 of 33 passes for 197 yards. “We knew we could come back because our defense has been solid.”