STATWATCH : Leach’s Performance Earns Him a Place Among Granada Hills’ Quarterback Elite

In 1970, Granada Hills quarterback Dana Potter had one of the best statistical seasons of any Valley-area quarterback in history when he passed for 3,227 yards and 36 touchdowns.

About that time, 10-month-old Jeremy Leach was warming up for his quarterback career by chucking baby food at his mother.

Leach, who was born in 1970, made a run at several of Potter’s records this season. The 6-foot, 2-inch senior passed for 2,666 yards, the third-best mark in school history. Only Potter and John Elway (3,039 in 1977) have had better totals. Leach nearly doubled his yardage total as a junior (1,346 yards) and threw more than twice as many scoring passes (14 touchdowns in 1986) while completing 208 of 342 passes (60.8%).

With three touchdown passes in Granada Hills’ 27-14 upset of Carson in the City Section 4-A Division championship game Friday, Leach finished with 35 for the season, 10 more than Elway had in ’77. Leach finished with only nine interceptions, a touchdown-to-interception ratio of nearly 4 to 1.

The Granada Hills receivers also set a slew of single-season school marks. Kyle Jan, a 6-4 senior, finished with 15 touchdowns, which broke the old record by two. Jan also had 65 receptions, second only to Scott Mottram’s 81 catches in 1973. Tight end Sean Brown, a 6-3 senior, finished with 56 receptions, placing him fourth on the school’s single-season list.

Leach, Brown and Jan were all named to The Times All-Valley team.

Defense: Granada Hills ended the season with seven consecutive wins and it was the defense that led the way. After allowing 101 points in its first five games, when the Highlanders struggled to a 2-3 record, the defense surrendered only 62 points in the last seven games and held opponents to less than 10 points in four of those starts. In three playoffs games, the Highlanders allowed 20 points.

Passing: In Reseda’s 10-0 victory over Westchester two months ago, Reseda Coach Joel Schaeffer said that quarterback Coley Kyman had showed a lot of poise and maturity despite having modest statistics (He completed 4 of 14 passes for 57 yards.).

When the teams played again last Saturday, Kyman had comparable statistics (5 of 12 for 37 yards) but was given a harsher judgment: Kyman was replaced at the start of the fourth quarter in Reseda’s 21-13 loss in the City Section 2-A Division championship game.

Receiving: Reseda tight end David Wilson caught 27 passes for 513 yards and 8 touchdowns this season. The rest of the Regents’ receivers caught 25 passes for 515 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Basketball: Though first-year Coach Dave Hoffman expected St. Genevieve to have a balanced scoring attack this season, seniors Mike Walker and Ronny Nielsen were both averaging at least 20 points a game after four contests. Walker, a 6-1 forward, was averaging 20.5 points and 6.8 rebounds a game, and Nielsen, a 6-4 second-year transfer center from Montclair Prep, was averaging 20.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists. Walker was shooting 61.4% and Nielsen 58.0%. St. Genevieve was shooting nearly as well from the field as it was from the free-throw line. The Valiants had made 48.6% of their field-goal attempts, but only 49.5% of their free throws. St. Genevieve made 31 of 59 shots in a 71-67 loss to Marshall Fundamental in the semifinals of the Cathedral tournament but only 5 of 20 free throws (25%). “My wife can shoot better from the free-throw line than that,” Hoffman quipped in his native West Virginia drawl.

San Fernando’s Tory Stephens is averaging 25 points a game through five games. Joe Mauldin, who missed San Fernando’s first three games because of football season, is averaging 17 points a game. Lance Whitaker is the Tigers’ leading rebounder, averaging 8 a game. . . . Saugus’ Rick Bilek is shooting 85% from the free-throw line. . . . Calabasas’ Jon Drezner has averaged 22.2 points a game and has accounted for 38% of the team’s scoring (200 of 521 points) in the first nine games.

VALLEY BASKETBALL

TOP 10Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Simi Valley Marmonte 8-1 2 2 Cleveland Valley 4-2 3 3 Taft Valley 6-1 4 4 Kennedy Valley 6-0 5 5 North Hollywood East Valley 5-2 6 7 Alemany Del Rey 4-3 7 9 Crespi Del Rey 7-5 8 NR Chatsworth Northwest 4-2 9 10 Royal Marmonte 6-3 10 6 Grant East Valley 5-2

NR--Not ranked.

Through Tuesday’s games.

VALLEY FOOTBALL

TOP 10--FINAL

Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Rk Team League Record 1 Granada Hills Valley 4-A 9-3-0 2 Crespi Del Rey 10-2-1 3 Thousand Oaks Marmonte 12-1-1 4 Hart Foothill 11-2-0 5 Canyon Golden 10-3-0 6 Burroughs Foothill 12-2-0 7 Chaminade Santa Fe 11-3-0 8 San Fernando Valley 4-A 7-2-1 9 Reseda Pac 8 10-1-0 10 Chatsworth Sunset 7-4-0