SOUTHERN SECTION CHAMPIONSHIP FOOTBALL GAMES : Division III : Manu Directs Paramount Past Los Alamitos

Quarterback Jack Manu made one big play after another to key Paramount High School’s 30-20 victory over Los Alamitos in the Southern Section Division III championship game Saturday night.

A crowd of 8,000 at Orange Coast College watched Manu run circles around the Los Alamitos defense. He gained 84 yards and 2 touchdowns in 20 carries, mostly on option rollouts.

His fakes kept the defenders off balance, and when they caught up with him, he was strong enough to carry them along for a few extra yards.

Manu also completed 9 of 10 passes for 159 yards and 1 touchdown. And though he didn’t always look smooth when he dropped back, he was efficient.

Whenever Paramount (12-1) needed a big play, he came up with one to keep the Pirates’ momentum going.

“He runs, he throws--it just didn’t matter,” Paramount Coach Ken Sutch said. “It looks like he’s all-CIF to me. He did a hell of a job, and so did his teammates.”

Paramount needed everything it could get from Manu to win.

Los Alamitos, though it suffered through a miserable first half, gave the Pirates fits with a sharp passing game.

Quarterback Todd Gragnano completed 12 of 19 passes for 1 touchdown (he also ran for another) to lead Los Alamitos.

Manu scored on runs of 1 and 2 yards and Paramount led 14-0 with 49 seconds left in the first half. But Gragnano took the Griffins, who had run only 6 plays to that point, on a 80-yard drive in 43 seconds.

The touchdown came on a 21-yard pass to wide receiver Ron Monninger.

Los Alamitos opened the second half by using a no-huddle, hurry up offense and pulled even at 14-14 after Gragnano dove over from a yard out. Los Alamitos appeared to have taken the momentum away from Paramount, but it didn’t last long.

On the next drive, Manu threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Laauli Toomalatai for a 21-14 lead.

On its next series, Paramount kept the ball for 19 plays, the drive yielding a 23-yard field goal by Ignacio Villasenor for a 24-14 lead.

Daniel Godfrey added a 16-yard scoring run, after Manu ran 11 yards and pitched to Godfrey for the final touchdown and a 30-14 lead with 6:28 left in the game.

Los Alamitos closed the gap to 30-20 after backup quarterback Winston Wolf threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Monninger.

Wolf subbed for Gragnano who left with a injured shoulder after being sacked midway through the fourth quarter.

This was Paramount’s first championship appearance. Los Alamitos was playing in its second in a row, and fourth since the school opened in 1967. The Griffins fared considerably better than in the 1987 Southern Conference championship game.

Los Alamitos tied a school-record for victories in a season and finished with a 12-1-1 record. Los Alamitos hadn’t been beaten since last December, when it lost to El Toro in the title game.

Last season, Los Alamitos wilted under a relentless El Toro passing attack and was blown away, 36-6, in a game played in a wind storm that featured gusts up to 50 m.p.h.

In that loss, Gragnano’s passes wobbled and never got to his intended targets.

Then, as now, the Griffins featured a rock-solid defense. This season’s model gave up just 86 points in the 13 games leading up to the championship game.

That was before it met Manu and his Paramount teammates.

“He made all the plays didn’t he?” Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes said.