Brea-Olinda Barely Has Home Advantage, Loses to Baldwin, 17-6

You know your football season is going to be long when:

--Your own stadium is torn down for a shopping center.

--You have to call at least four different stadiums--or seemingly every other freeway exit--the home field.

--You can’t tell the difference between Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and the school fight song.

--And when a team flies all the way from Hawaii and you figure you at least have the mainland advantage, your quarterback throws an interception on the first play of the game.

Although the interception thrown by Brea’s Shon Riley did not result in a score, the miscue was typical of an evening of Wildcat mistakes, fumbles and bumbles as Brea lost to Hawaii’s Baldwin High School, 17-6, Friday night at Fullerton High School.

Last year, the Wildcats lost, 27-14, at Hawaii.

“We just had an edge on them, already having one game under our belt,” said Baldwin Coach Mel Mukai, whose team defeated Honolulu’s Kalaini High School last week, 30-20.

“It was a poor performance, but we’ll come back,” said Brea Coach Bill Brown as his team took its first wrong turn of the year in its season debut.

Did anything in particular need work?

“Right now, it just looks like about everything. Offensively, we stunk up the field.”

That was a fairly accurate assessment of the first half of the first high school football game played in Orange County this year.

The series after Riley threw the interception, he fumbled away a pitch and Baldwin recovered. The mistakes would continue as penalties wiped out long pass gains, and the offensive line would follow a major gain by allowing a sack.

Baldwin’s Brandon Kotter kicked a 43-yard field goal to give the Bears a first-quarter lead, 3-0. The Bears increased that lead in the second quarter as George Russell raced for a 16-yard touchdown.

In the second half, though, the Wildcat defense was managing to stop Baldwin’s ground game. The Wildcats allowed no points in the third period, and had Marc Shaw not fumbled a punt at the 7-yard line, might have shut out the Bears in the second half. Indeed, the defense, with the help of an offside penalty, pushed the Bears back to the 11-yard line.

But on the next play, Baldwin quarterback Scott Klaschka threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Roy Moriyasu, putting the game out of reach, 17-0.

Almost halfway through the fourth quarter, Brea’s Riley completed an 11-yard touchdown pass to David Stark. The attempt at a two-point conversion failed.

BALDWIN (HAWAII) 17, BREA-OLINDA 6