ORANGE COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL : Garden Grove League : Rancho Alamitos Rolls With Cheatham

Rancho Alamitos High School running back Sean Cheatham started Friday night’s game against Garden Grove with a slightly separated shoulder.

But it didn’t seem to bother him as he rushed for 259 yards in 31 carries and scored 4 touchdowns to lead the Vaqueros to a 42-22 victory over the Argonauts in a Garden Grove League game at Garden Grove.

Cheatham, Orange County’s leading rusher and scorer, scored in the first quarter with a one-yard run that capped an 11-play, 70-yard drive in which he had 10 carries for 55 yards.

Cheatham also scored on runs of 52, 7 and 3 yards. He also scored four points on two conversion runs.

The Vaqueros (5-1, 2-1) were far from perfect in execution, however. They were penalized 14 times for 154 yards, and had a touchdown called back and had an interception nullified.

Rancho Alamitos Coach Mark Miller downplayed the penalties.

“I’m concerned, but many of the penalties came in the second half with substitutes,” he said. “But it’s improving.”

Penalties hurt the Vaqueros in last week’s 24-14 loss to Los Amigos.

Garden Grove had its problems with penalties. It was penalized 10 times for 110 yards, and had a touchdown called back.

Garden Grove (1-5, 0-3) trailed 36-0 in the third quarter when it mounted a comeback behind backup quarterback Mike Lyon. Lyon threw to Aaron Deering for a 44-yard touchdown midway through the period. Lyon, who completed 11 of 22 for 173 yards, also threw to Deering for an 18-yard touchdown play in the fourth quarter.

Deering finished with 7 catches for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Bryan McGinley scored Garden Grove’s other touchdown on a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Los Amigos 20, Kennedy 14--Andy Baturevich scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak with 3:05 left to give Los Amigos a victory at Bolsa Grande High.

Baturevich’s score, which broke a 14-14 tie, came three plays after Baturevich threw 69 yards to Joon Kang. The play brought the ball to the Kennedy five.

Los Amigos (3-3, 2-1), which trailed, 6-0, after one quarter, took a 7-6 lead with 3:07 left in the second period on Scott Shelton’s 1-yard run and Armando Reyes’ extra point kick. The Lobos led 14-6 two minutes later after Todd Schmidgall returned an interception 32 yards for a score.

Kennedy (1-4-1, 1-1-1), which got its first score on Ed Williams’ 4-yard run late in the first quarter, narrowed the lead to 14-12 on Ed Montera’s 32-yard scoring pass to Greg Hansell with 6:03 left. Montera then tied the score with a two-point conversion pass to Tom Deep.