Valencia Cuts La Quinta Off at Pass

Ken Lee, Valencia High School linebacker, insisted he was merely in the right place at the right time Friday night when he intercepted two passes within 35 seconds of the fourth quarter.

“The first one came right out of the blue,” Lee said. “The ball hit me in the face. The second one was tipped and came right to me.”

Lee’s good fortune helped Valencia turn a close game into a 42-15 rout over La Quinta in the second round of the Division VI playoffs in front of 4,000 fans at Bradford Stadium. Valencia (11-1) will meet Sunny Hills (9-3) in the semifinals on Friday at a site to be announced today.

Lee returned his first interception 44 yards to set up teammate Ryan Roskelly’s two-yard run that pushed Valencia comfortably ahead, 35-15. Before La Quinta could regroup, Lee intercepted his second pass and returned it 30 yards to set up another Roskelly touchdown.

“He made some big plays,” said Mike Marrujo, Valencia coach. “I thought everyone played very well tonight. I was very pleased.”

Valencia avenged a 19-14 upset loss to La Quinta in the first round of last year’s playoffs by combining the passing of Marc O’Brien and the relentless running of Roskelly and Willie Barnes.

O’Brien completed eight of 15 pass attempts for 123 yards and one touchdown. Roskelly had 106 yards rushing and scored four touchdowns, but Barnes was Valencia’s most impressive player with 117 yards rushing, as he repeatedly eluded tacklers with his shifty running.

“They were very impressive,” said Roger Takahashi, La Quinta coach. “You watch them on film and they’re impressive and then when you got up against them, they’re very impressive. We couldn’t match up with them and would have had to have played a perfect game to beat them.”

La Quinta quarterback Donald Hopkins was anything but perfect, though. Hopkins passed for 200 yards and a touchdown and ran for another, but he also threw three crucial interceptions in the fourth quarter.

Hopkins completed 11 of 28 attempts and finished with 2,359 yards and 17 touchdowns for the season. Valencia’s defense also limited La Quinta to only 70 yards rushing to compliment its potent offense.

Roskelly has been asked to pick up the slack in the absence of teammate John Fewell in Valencia’s running attack. Fewell was declared academically ineligible last week. Roskelly responded with scoring runs of four, two and one yards and caught a seven-yard touchdown pass from O’Brien.

Finally, there was a significant weakness in Valencia’s impressive win. The Tigers averaged only 16 yards per punt. Still, Marrujo wasn’t complaining.

“I told my punter, ‘Just don’t get a kick blocked,’ ” Marrujo said. “I don’t care how far he kicks them, as long as we don’t one blocked.”

Takahashi said he expected the worst when Brea-Olinda upset Valencia to win the Orange League title, pushing Valencia into La Quinta’s playoff bracket.

“When I looked at the draw sheet and saw them in our bracket, I knew they were going to be tough to handle. They’re a hungry team after failing to win their league.”