Orange County Prep Football : La Quinta Puts It Away in First Half

Tom Cherms ran for 132 yards and 3 touchdowns in the first half to lead La Quinta High School to a 35-0 Garden Grove League football victory Saturday at Garden Grove.

La Quinta (3-5 overall, 3-2 in league play) scored all its points in the first half. Cherms opened the scoring with four minutes played in the first period when he swept 60 yards for a touchdown.

Five minutes later, Cherms extended La Quinta’s lead to 14-0 by scoring on a four-yard run. The score culminated a 50-yard, 7-play drive, in which Cherms carried the ball 5 times for 30 yards. Cherms, who also caught 4 passes for 60 yards in the first half, scored his third touchdown with five minutes left in the half on a 26-yard run.

La Quinta then scored on runs of 39 yards by Jeff Reynolds and 3 by Yauto Dang to increase the lead to 35-0.

Garden Grove (0-5, 1-6), which had minus-five yards total offense in the first half, advanced the ball to the Aztec 24-yard line on Mike Moore’s 61-yard kickoff return late in the first quarter. It came after Cherms’ second score. But three plays later, Garden Grove lost the ball on downs on Mike Lyon’s incomplete pass at the La Quinta 27.

Orange Lutheran 7, Brethren 6--Jason Neben rushed for 137 yards and the winning touchdown in 30 carries to lead the Lancers in an Olympic League game at Orange Lutheran.

Neben’s touchdown came in the second quarter. Carlos Sidney scored on a four-yard run with 3:32 left in the game, but the Lancers stopped Sidney on a two-point conversion try and held on for the victory.

Orange Lutheran is 5-3 and 2-1.