Garden Grove League : Big Play Does the Trick for La Quinta

La Quinta High School made the big plays Friday night, and stopped county rushing leader Dana Riddle in a 28-13 Garden Grove League victory over Rancho Alamitos in front of 300 at Bolsa Grande.

La Quinta (2-3, 1-1) jumped to a 13-0 lead on two breakaway plays for touchdowns by Trent Julian, and the Aztecs never looked back.

The Aztecs began the third quarter with another big play, an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Jason Cherms and led, 21-7, after a successful two-point conversion.

La Quinta contained Riddle, who had 122 yards and one touchdown in 36 carries.

“Basically we did what everybody else has tried,” Aztec Coach Roger Takahashi said. “We stacked the outside tackles, played an eight- or nine-man front and tried to stuff the holes.”

The key to defeating Rancho Alamitos (2-3, 1-1) is scoring first and making the Vaqueros’ clock-eating running game work against them, Takahashi said.

“We were fortunate we had some big plays in the first half (because) they pretty much negated everything in the second half,” Takahashi said.

In La Quinta’s first series, Julian plowed up the middle into the Vaquero secondary, bounced off Rudy Nava and into the end zone to put La Quinta ahead 6-0 on the 34-yard run.

The next time Julian touched the ball, he took a screen pass 65 yards for another touchdown and Rancho Alamitos trailed, 13-0.

“He’s a gamer is what you call him,” Takahashi said. “Game after game he’s going to come up with something.”

Julian had 53 yards in six carries and caught two passes for 74 yards.

Though Rancho Alamitos held the ball longer, intercepted Aztec quarterback Richard Weaver twice in the first half and recovered two Aztec fumbles, one in each half, it couldn’t capitalize.

Rancho Alamitos mounted a successful 14-play drive spanning six minutes in the first and second quarters. Completions of 11 and 15 yards from Dan Olivo to Eric Moore were key. Olivo handed off to Alfred Henshaw who passed 24 yards to Moore at the Aztec 3. A play later, Olivo made it 13-7 on a sneak. Olivo completed six of 12 passes for 70 yards.

La Quinta fumbled away what appeared to be a sure scoring opportunity on the Vaquero 5-yard line late in the fourth quarter on first and goal.

Jesse James recovered for Rancho Alamitos, which took about five minutes and 19 plays to go 92 yards for the touchdown. Riddle carried 12 times for 70 yards in the drive and scored on a one-yard run with about five minutes to play.

Rancho got the ball back with about three minutes to play trailing, 21-13. But two sacks for a loss of 16 yards and two incomplete passes gave La Quinta the ball on the Vaquero 7, and three plays later, Aztec quarterback Weaver ran five yards for the game’s final score.