PREP FOOTBALL : Empire League : Los Alamitos Holds On to Beat El Dorado

Todd Gregnano passed for a touchdown and Eric Caesar and Chris Stewart each added scoring runs Friday to give Los Alamitos High School a 21-10 victory over El Dorado in the Empire League opener for both teams in Veterans Stadium at Long Beach.

Los Alamitos (5-0-1) led, 14-3, early in the third quarter, but El Dorado (2-4) narrowed the lead to 14-10 late in the third quarter on Lance Keeter’s 3-yard run. But 3 plays after the Griffins’ Scott Whan intercepted a David Swearingen pass at the El Dorado 30 with 1:30 to play, Stewart sealed the victory with a 20-yard touchdown run.

“I thought we played a great defensive game, but we had a few breakdowns, and Los Alamitos hit a few big plays on us,” El Dorado Coach Carl Sweet said.

“It was a very physical football game,” Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes said. “They played us very tough, but we were able to get some big plays on them when we needed them.”

El Dorado took a 3-0 lead with 50 seconds gone in the second quarter on Phil Nevin’s 32-yard field goal. The score was set up 8 plays earlier when Casey Olsen returned an interception 40 yards to the Los Alamitos 42.

Gregnano, who completed 8 of 18 passes for 124 yards, gave Los Alamitos a 7-3 lead with 4 minutes left in the half by throwing a 31-yard touchdown pass to Ron Monninger. The score capped an 80-yard, 11-play drive, which started after Nevin’s 40-yard field goal attempt sailed wide to the left.

Caesar gave Los Alamitos a 14-3 lead 3 minutes into the third quarter on a 9-yard run. The run capped an 80-yard, 8-play drive which was extended when a roughing the kicker penalty against El Dorado gave the Griffins a first down on their 41.

Gregnano helped the Los Alamitos drive with a 34-yard pass to Joel Fischer, and Chris Stewart contributed a 19-yard run to set up Caesar’s score.