Leach Unleashes Second-Half Air Assault : Granada Hills Quarterback Finishes With 366 Yards, 5 Touchdowns in 49-14 Victory

It was a game an armed forces recruiter would have loved.

On one side of the line of scrimmage you had the Marines--brothers Del and Peter--of Canoga Park. On the other side, you had quarterback Jeremy Leach, who captains a high school air force if there ever was one.

In the end it was Leach, the 6-4, All-City senior, who was the top gun. Leach passed for 366 yards and five touchdowns as Granada Hills defeated Canoga Park, 49-14, at Granada Hills on Friday night.

Leach’s performance might serve to get Coach Darryl Stroh, the team’s drill sergeant, to back off a little. In Granada Hills’ first two games, Stroh cited complacency in the team’s passing-machine offense.

“That’s got to save us a little bit,” Leach said. “I know I’m pretty happy with that.

Leach led Granada Hills (2-1) to a 21-14 lead at the half before the Highlanders, ranked No. 3 in the City Section 4-A Division, buried Canoga Park (2-1) in the second half with 28 points.

“We just decided to come out and do our own thing,” Leach said. “That’s passing the ball.”

Leach picked apart the Canoga Park secondary, completing 22 of 33. Leach entered the game with a 74% completion rate--the best in the Valley area. But a guy has to make some concessions.

“It wasn’t my best from a completion standpoint,” Leach said. “But it sure turned out OK.”

Leach threw touchdown passes of 15, 43, 2, 13 and 11 yards. Two each went to receivers Kyle Jan and Darryl Stephenson and Sean Brown caught the other one.

“We had the passing game established all year,” offensive coordinator Tom Harp said. “Tonight we cut down on our mistakes, too.”

Canoga Park made seferal mistakes, especially in the second half when Leach, well, torched the Hunter defensive backs.

“One guy makes a mistake and another turns to help over,” Canoga Park Coach Rudy Lugo said.

“Then you have two guys open. Its’s a case of trying to save someone else’s house when yours is burning down.”

Del Marine passed for 202 yards for the Hunter but was intercepted three times.