ORANGE COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL : Freeway League : Sunny Hills Wins, 27-0, for a Share of Title : Imperiali’s Big Night Too Much for Indians

If anyone deserved to be in the middle of Friday night’s wild, postgame celebration marking Sunny Hills High School’s 27-0 victory over rival Fullerton, it was Lancer receiver/running back Tim Imperiali.

In a little less than three quarters of playing, Imperiali had scored one touchdown on a 92-yard run and set up two others with four outstanding plays to help Sunny Hills earn a share of the Freeway League championship with La Habra.

However, while hundreds of Lancer fans in the crowd of 4,500 poured onto Buena Park’s Spaulding Field after the final gun, Imperiali remained on the Sunny Hills bench with one ice bag wrapped around his right knee and another around his right ankle.

Imperiali had been injured late during a third-period punt return when Fullerton’s Jeff Bailey landed on his leg while making the tackle. Although Imperiali was unable to return to action, he wasn’t about to miss the entire postgame party.

“I want out there,” Imperiali said, pointing toward the crowd at midfield. And with that, the Lancers’ man of the hour finally hobbled out to savor the win, if for only a few minutes.

The injury to Imperiali’s knee isn’t believed to have been serious; he said he could run and only stayed out of the game as a precautionary measure.

But he didn’t depart before inflicting his share of damage on the Indians. Imperiali ended up the evening with 145 yards rushing in 9 carries and 2 receptions for 24 yards.

Midway through the third quarter, after a Fullerton punt had pinned the Lancers back on their own eight, Imperiali took a handoff, found an opening around the right side and outran the Indians’ defense on his way to the end zone.

Carlos Miramontes’ third extra point gave Sunny Hills a comfortable, 21-0 lead.

In the first quarter, Imperiali’s 18-yard run gave the Lancers a first-and-goal at the Fullerton four-yard line, and Bryan Edmonds covered the final distance for the touchdown.

Then in the second quarter, Imperiali returned a punt 29 yards and added a 22-yard run to give Sunny Hills the ball on the Indian 18. On a third-and-10 from there, his leaping catch of a David Chisum pass was good for a first down at the 3, from where Edmonds took the ball in.

“It’s nice to have a kid like that,” Sunny Hills Coach Tim Devaney said of Imperiali, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior. “He’s a big-play kid. I think he just bruised his knee. He’ll be okay. Knock on wood.”

The Sunny Hills defense was more than okay , shutting down Fullerton’s passing and running games. Indian quarterback Aaron Acton completed just 5 of 12 passes for 67 yards, was intercepted once (by Mike McGuire) and sacked four times. Fullerton had just 77 yards rushing.

The defense also accounted for Sunny Hills’ final score in the fourth quarter, as Stewart Richardson blocked a punt and Arnold Cho recovered in the end zone.

The win leaves the Lancers 4-1 in league play (9-1 overall), but they will enter the Central Conference playoffs as No. 2 behind La Habra because of an earlier loss to the Highlanders.

Although Fullerton finished with a 3-2 league record (7-3 overall) and tied for third place with Troy, the Indians can only reach the playoffs with a wild-card berth since the Warriors get the playoff berth by virtue of their 21-20 win over Fullerton last week.