Orange League : Western Goes to Its Bench, Finds a Winner
Western’s Rich Lodding came off the bench twice Friday night to throw touchdown passes to lead the Pioneers to a 29-26 victory over Brea-Olinda in Handel Stadium to grab a share of the Orange League championship with Valencia.
Lodding, who lost his job as starting quarterback to Mike Huy after a loss to Magnolia, rolled left from the Brea four-yard line and found Jorge Ortiz in the corner of the end zone with 20 seconds remaining to give Western the win in front of 2,000 spectators.
Both Western and Valencia finish at 4-1 in league, but the Pioneers will be earn a first-place seeding into the Central Conference playoffs because they defeated the Tigers, 18-15. Brea will be the league’s third-place representative.
Had Western lost, it may have been eliminated from the playoffs. A Magnolia victory over Savanna tonight would have tied the Sentinels with the Pioneers for third place, but Magnolia would have received the playoff berth because of its win over Western.
Instead, the Pioneers are celebrating a league championship, and they have Lodding to thank. He had replaced Huy to start the Pioneers’ final drive, which began on the Wildcat 48 with 2:41 left. He completed a 12-yard pass to Jim Howell, but the big play on the drive was a pass interference call on Brea’s Steve Teran that gave Western a first down at the 15.
Carl Manliguis ran for seven yards and Lodding for two more before the quarterback hit Ortiz with the game-winner. Lodding also deflected one pass and intercepted another on Brea’s final possession to stop any comeback.
Lodding, who is a starting pitcher on the Pioneers’ baseball team, also was called out of the bullpen in the first half to throw a home-run ball.
Huy is a running quarterback, as evidenced by his 39-yard touchdown sprint that gave Western an early, 7-0, lead, but he was having trouble passing, as evidenced by his two first-period interceptions.
So, when Western had the ball on the Brea 32-yard line with 16 seconds left in the second quarter, Jim Howell, Pioneer coach, brought in Lodding, who proved to have the right touch. He fired a perfect pass over the middle to Steve Hefferan, who was tackled at the one-yard line with six seconds left.
Western was out of timeouts, but the officials stopped the clock to spot the ball. There was confusion in the Pioneer backfield when the clock started, but center Rick Haskell had the sense to snap the ball before time ran out.
The ball bounced off Lodding’s leg, but the quarterback scooped it up, scrambled to his left and found Hefferan, who cradled the ball in the end zone for a 14-10 Western lead.
Brea went ahead, 19-14, in the third period on a safety--Mark Chase tackled Huy in the end zone--and Mike Oziminski’s second, three-yard touchdown run of the game, and the lead changed hands three times in the fourth quarter.
Western made it 22-19 when Howell took a pitch from Huy from the Brea 15, rolled right and lofted a pass to Shawn Frattone, who outjumped Teran for the ball in the end zone. Huy passed to Tim Hoffman for the two-point conversion.
The Wildcats came right back and drove 76 yards in 7 plays, including Toby Peruti’s 19-yard touchdown run with 6:40 left that made it 26-22, Brea.
