La Habra believed in, and has a chance for perfection
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
La Habra is one of three remaining teams in the Southern Section -- along with Citrus Hill (13-0) and St. Margaret’s (13-0) -- that are unbeaten and untied. The last time the Highlanders (12-0) were beaten was in last year’s semifinals. Myself, along with everyone at La Habra -- and probably a few others, too -- seemed to think they were predestined for the title game. They were No. 1 in the Southeast Division rankings from start to finish.
‘I think our kids believed that, that we were a pretty good football team, and worked hard getting ready for it,’ Coach Frank Mazzotta said. ‘They did a good job of not looking ahead -- focused on one week at a time.’
So here they are, with a chance to play Freeway League rival Fullerton at 7 p.m. Friday at Santa Ana Stadium.
‘They’re going to be really physical, they’re very large,’ Mazzotta said of an Indians’ team that relies heavily on running back Michael Allain. ‘Their football style is punch you in the face, run the ball, grind it out. On defense, they’re extremely aggressive. We’ll have to match physical play with physical play.... That’s going to be an issue.’
Mazzotta is giving Fullerton a lot of credit. Had this game taken place during league, instead of being canceled because of the Southern California wildfires, it wouldn’t have attracted much interest outside the two schools.
I do like the fact that Fullerton played Troy tough and lost, 22-20, and La Habra needed to come from behind in the final minute to beat Troy, 29-22, in the Highlanders’ only game decided by fewer than 21 points. So, maybe there’s hope that this will be a good game from a spectator point of view. Wet conditions work to the advantage of Fullerton, which is trying to win its first title.
This is also the last chance to see a pretty good quarterback, La Habra’s Chris Morales, and a team that seems to be an offensive highlight waiting to happen. ‘It means a lot to be here,’ Morales said. ‘I feel like we can show what we can do when we’re all healthy. As long as we execute, we’re pretty much good.’
No matter how good Fullerton’s defense is, La Habra has a lot of offense to stop: The Highlanders won their three playoff games, 55-7, 59-14 and 44-0.
They may not compete on the Pac-5 level -- though it would have been fun to see how they would have matched up against a little beefier schedule -- but this team from Day 1 has seemed to have something different about it.
‘That’s what makes a special team,’ Mazzoatta said of his players and coaches. ‘Their expectations were as high as ours. There wasn’t too much prodding. The kids were very mature in their approach. Week in and week out, they played as well as they can.’
-- Martin Henderson