Cody Clements
File photo by Heston Quan
has won three consecutive championships in a middling division, but anyone who thinks the Highlanders are a second-tier team this football season needs to re-evaluate.
Going into the 2010 campaign with a ramped-up non-league schedule – which includes three Trinity League opponents, no less – La Habra showed every indication over the weekend that it's up to the challenge.
The Highlanders won the Battle at the Beach passing tournament at Edison on Saturday, and in doing so knocked down some of the Southern Section's biggest names. They defeated Mater Dei, South Hills and Notre Dame in pool play, then won the Gold Division championship in tournament play with victories over Oaks Christian, Valencia and Centennial.
Frank Mazzotta, La Habra's coach, cautions that passing league and real football are different animals.
"At minimum, you feel good and know you played good teams and competed," Mazzotta said. "We've come here before and lost but still won a division title."
However, rolling off six victories behind quarterback Cody Clements and receivers Jake Neely, Mark Yackey and Jordan Salo, provides an indication that La Habra has the skill players to compete with anyone. Couple that with the offensive line – four of its five offensive linemen are returning starters – and some conclusions can begin to be drawn.
"Our expectations are always the same, to compete and to do well, to win a league championship and expect to go to the playoffs and make a statement," Mazzotta said. "As long as the kids play good and we stay healthy."
La Habra won the passing tournament without its best receiver, junior Brett Bartolone, who caught 45 passes for 12 touchdowns last season and averaged 23.2 yards per catch, and senior tight end Jake McBride.
Clements' performance capped an eventful week in which he also committed to Washington State. He passed for 29 touchdowns with only five interceptions last season.
"I think he picked them now because it was starting to bug him, teams were saying 'We kind of want you but you're No. 2 on our board,' but Washington State really wanted him, he liked the coaches and the area," Mazzotta said. "Some colleges missed out on Cody. Washington State is getting a jewel."
Protecting him will be four returning starters, left tackle Kevin Casey, left guard Spencer Long, center Josh Elkington and right tackle Kyle Peko. The two tackles will be third-year starters.
They are also bolstered by a transfer, Drake Griffin, a 1,000-yard rusher at St. Paul.
La Habra was 13-1 last season and won the Freeway League easily. Its only loss was to Los Alamitos, 28-13. La Habra beat Southern Division champion La Mirada, Southeast Division semifinalist South Hills, and a Pac-5 playoff team, San Clemente, which was La Habra's first victory over a program from the section's marquee division.
This season, La Habra plays Orange Lutheran, La Mirada, defending State Division II Bowl champion Servite, Downey and St. John Bosco. Lutheran, Servite and Bosco are from the Pac-5's much-heralded Trinity League. As schedules go, it's a handful.
Should La Habra knock off a couple of heavyweights in its non-league schedule and win a fourth consecutive section title, it might finally garner consideration for a State Bowl berth. The Southwest Division champion will be considered for the Division II berth, along with winners of the Central, Western, Eastern and Southeast divisions, and second- and third-tier divisions in the City, Central and San Diego sections. The new selection parameters begin this season.
"It helps us," Mazzotta said. "We were behind the 8-ball when you have the Pac-5 parochials who had smaller enrollments in our same (state) division so we were always out (compared to) Lutheran and Servite."
Over the last three seasons, La Habra finished 13-0, 12-2 and 13-1. This year, it will dress 80 players on varsity for the first time.
"The only complaint people were having early in the day was that the kids were playing too rough, too physical," Mazzotta said of his team's passing league performance. "We'd take that any day. In real football, you have to be rough and tumble."
Especially with that schedule.
Centennial surprise
Perhaps even more eye-opening than La Habra's victory in the Battle at the Beach was Centennial's appearance in the finals. It caught Coach Matt Logan by surprise.
"Imagine that," Logan said. "We knew we were a veteran group coming back, especially offensive skill-players wise, most of those guys are returning starters. We thought we'd be OK. We come here to compete. Whether we win or not is secondary. We stay within the scheme of our offense and work to get better. Whether we go 1-5 or 5-1 is really (less) important than how much work we get. This is as far as we've ever gone in this tournament so I guess it was kind of fun."
Like La Habra, Centennial has an offensive line that has the potential to be one of its best – even better than the ones who played for State Bowl championships in 2007 and 2008.
"Passing league is passing league, it has some value, that's why we do it," said Logan, who cautioned that his defense is young. "But there's no contact, and that's where the game is won. A guy can look great in shorts touching a guy but can he tackle in pads? That's what we want to see from our kids in the fall."
Out of pads, 6-foot-5 quarterback Mike Eubank looked terrific as he completed passes to the likes of Larry Scott and Barrinton Collins. Centennial lost in pool play to Valencia, which finished 12-1 last season and returns quarterback Alex Bishop (37 touchdowns, 6 interceptions). Both teams were among the eight to advance to the Gold Division. Centennial beat Westlake and Los Alamitos before losing to La Habra.
"He started half the games last year," Logan said of Eubank. "I'm really surprised he doesn't have more going for him recruiting wise. He's a good player, his development has been great."
He certainly looked the part over the weekend.
Other surprises
If La Habra and Centennial were surprising for their appearance in the finals, it was because of who wasn't playing for the championship trophy.
Westlake, the defending undefeated Northern Division champion led by quarterback Nick Isham and receiver Nelson Spruce, is a team made for passing league and won tournaments in Saugus and Pierce College. The Warriors were beaten by Centennial in the first round of the Gold championship bracket.
Still, with its second-round victory over Mater Dei, Westlake ended its day a solid 4-1, including a victory over Edison.
As for Mater Dei, which won the Air Strike tournament at the beginning of summer, it finished 1-4 despite having a USC-bound passing combination, Max Wittek and receiver Victor Blackwell. Mater Dei beat South Hills but lost to La Habra, Notre Dame, Los Alamitos and Westlake.
"We take La Habra to double overtime and we should have won it in the first OT but dropped a ball," Mater Dei head coach Bruce Rollinson said. "We dropped an interception in the second OT and they get a completion after that. We were off slightly. We don't take a break for these things, and I've been grinding them pretty good. We're in that kind of slump right now, and I saw it coming in our games during the week. It's summer football. It's July. We just have to go back and work hard.
"Was I excited? No. Was I manically depressed? Absolutely not."
Oaks Christian, the small-school power that is moving into the Marmonte League this season, won its first two games, then lost three in a row.
"That's probably never happened in the last 10 years," one coach said.
The Lions beat Chaparral, which is the defending Inland Division champion, and Foothill, then fell in order to Los Alamitos, La Habra and Edison.
Bridgford gets the nod
Mission Viejo defeated Upland in a passing tournament hosted by Mission. It beat Trabuco Hills in the semifinals, while Upland defeated Long Beach Poly.
Junior Alex Bridgford, younger brother of California quarterback Allan Bridgford, is "coming along well," Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson told the Orange County Register. "Bridgford is our guy."
There has been speculation that USC-bound linebacker Tre Madden could see action at quarterback as well, probably in a wildcat formation.
Other passing league results
Lakewood won the Santa Fe tournament, defeating Loyola in the championship game. That's a great showing for Loyola, which debuts this season with coach Mike Christensen, who had previously coached at Lakewood. San Clemente lost only once in eight games, to Lakewood.
Thousand Oaks and Buena both were undefeated in the Oxnard Rio Mesa tournament.
Hart and Alemany tied in the championship game of the Valley College tournament.
South East defeated Crenshaw in the championship game of the tournament hosted by Crenshaw.
Royal defeated Crescenta Valley, 26-18, to win the tournament at St. Francis-La Canada. Royal beat St. Francis in one semifinal, 37-21, and Crescenta Valley beat Moorpark, 24-15, in the other.
Murrieta Valley won the passing tournament at the Southwest County tournament at Paloma Valley-Menifee. It beat Arlington-Riverside in the title game, 19-6. The host team suffered an injury, however: Running back Sebastian Flores suffered a broken collarbone and is out four to six weeks.
Awards, awards, awards
The Desert Sun in Palm Springs named Palm Desert pitcher Nick Baker its male athlete of the year, and Palm Springs swimmer Lynette Lim the female award-winner.
The transfers among you
Todd Hunt, a running back from Connecticut, has enrolled at Mater Dei. He could play linebacker, defensive end or fullback. He did not play at the passing tournament at Edison.
Comings and goings
Dwayne Polee, former director of basketball operations at USC, has been hired as the boys basketball coach at Manual Arts. Polee, in a performance rich with lore, scored 43 points to lead the Toilers past Crenshaw in the City Section title game in 1981.
Kyle Pattison has been named boys basketball coach at Rim of the World. He replaces Brian Snow, who went 8-18 last season.
Recruiting news
Jovonte Slater, who finished eighth in the state in the 100 meters for Vista Murrieta, has committed to USC for track and field but with an option to compete on the football team. As a junior, Slater returned kicks (two for touchdowns) and split time at running back.
Martin Henderson began covering Southland preps in 1993 for the Los Angeles Times. He contributes to the Orange County Register, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and San Bernardino Sun, and offers up motorsports opinions at Racescribe.com. You can reach him at
southlandpreps@yahoo.com
.
