ATHLETE OF THE WEEK : Leach Cleaning Up While the Line Keeps Him Clean

Jeremy Leach was just having some good, clean fun.

“I didn’t touch the ground once,” Leach said. “No one ever even touched me. I was so clean, I looked like I spent the whole night on the bench.”

That probably is precisely where Canoga Park Coach Rudy Lugo wishes Leach had spent last Friday night. Instead of warming the pine, however, Leach, the Granada Hills’ quarterback, was busy burning Lugo’s secondary.

“He took us apart,” Lugo said. “He’s a big, strong kid with a cannon for an arm. We just couldn’t stop him.”

Or even slow him. Leach, playing what he said was his best game, threw for 366 yards and 5 touchdowns--both career highs--and completed 22 of 33 attempts as Granada Hills (2-1) trounced Canoga Park, 49-14.

“I don’t think it was my best game percentage-wise,” Leach said. “But I did a better job of finding the secondary and third receivers.”

Leach not only emerged from the game without so much as a smudge on his jersey, his passing statistics were equally spotless: He threw no interceptions.

“But I’m still going to wash my uniform,” Leach said jokingly.

Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh couldn’t find a blemish on Leach, either.

“He doesn’t have any weaknesses,” Stroh said. “He’s able to do everything a quarterback is supposed to do.”

And everything a quarterback is not supposed to do. Like not throw interceptions. Leach has been picked off just once this year and only three times in 198 attempts last year.

“I try not to throw the stupid pass,” Leach said. “The more I play, the more I pick up the tendencies of the defenses--their drops and the rush.”

Canoga Park’s defense, fresh off a 33-0 drubbing of Cleveland, tried clinging to Leach like a bunch of. . . . well, let’s just say they tried to pressure the 6-2, 215-pound passer.

“I kind of started out slow and I was beginning to consider it one of my worst games,” Leach said. “There were missed passes and dropped passes. I was upset with myself.”

Before Leach and the Highlanders were really upset--as they were by Alemany, 17-14, in their season opener--Leach went to work.

With the score tied, 14-14, Leach hit Darryl Stephenson with a 15-yard touchdown pass to give Granada Hills the lead at halftime.

In the third quarter it was all Leach. He threw another touchdown pass to Stephenson and two to Kyle Jan. In the fourth quarter, he threw his fifth touchdown pass, an 11-yarder to tight end Sean Brown.

“I really haven’t been feeling a lot of pressure this year,” Leach said. “I’ve been telling my offensive line that they’ve been doing a great job.”