PREP FOOTBALL : Orange League : Valencia Gets Basic to Beat Brea-Olinda

Valencia High School’s football team put away the radical offensive tactics of last week’s victory--such as the forward pass--and reverted to its conservative but effective style to beat Brea-Olinda, 16-3, in Bradford Stadium Saturday.

The victory kept the Tigers (3-0, 6-1-1) in first place in the Orange League. Anaheim (3-0) is their next opponent.

Brea (2-1, 4-4), which managed to engage Valencia in its closest game since an 8-7 Tiger loss to Troy a month ago, dropped into third place.

Valencia had deviated from its usual down-to-earth offense in last week’s 28-0 victory against Western in which quarterback Chris DeRisio threw four touchdown passes.

But the defending league champions were back to basics Saturday, the same defense-oriented, offensive ball-control game that has been the trademark to success during Coach Mike Marrujo’s tenure.

DeRisio passed only eight times, with 3 completions for 44 yards.

Meanwhile, running back Dorian Estes gained 137 yards in 21 carries. Fullback Keef Leasure added 81 yards in 17 carries. They each scored once.

Valencia outgained the Wildcats, 283-117, in total offense, which also demonstrated the character of the Tiger defense.

When playing a team such as Valencia, which, in the words of Wildcat Coach Bill Brown, “has no flaws,” it is helpful to avoid fumbling a pitch on the fifth play of the game at your own 30-yard line.

However, Brea gave the Tigers that early break and after four plays Leasure scored on a 10-yard rush.

Early in the second quarter, Brea’s goal-line defense thwarted the Tigers’ next attempt at the 14-yard line, and Valencia’s Bryan Elliott missed a 31-yard field goal. But Elliott came back with a 20 yard field goal for a 9-0 Valencia lead on the last play of the first half.

In the third quarter, Valencia showed one sign that accidents will happen, even to Valencia. A fumble by Leasure was recovered by Brea’s Brady Russell at the Tiger 16.

But that was about as human as Valencia cared to get. It prevented Brea from scoring a touchdown. The Wildcats got to the three-yard line before having to call for Mike Oziminski to kick a 22-yard field goal.

On the Tigers’ next possession, they drove 87 yards to score on Estes’ spinning 18-yard run.

Brea’s Oziminski and Bill Montalvo played fine defense in holding the Tigers to a relatively low-scoring game. The Valencia defensive secondary was impressive as usual, picking off two passes to raise its total for the season to 20, a county high.