Savanna’s Second Half Stuns Brea : Football: Belanger passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Rebels score with 26 seconds left to upset No. 7 Wildcats.

Curtis Morris scored on a five-yard run with 26 seconds remaining to give Savanna a 23-20 victory over Brea-Olinda Friday in a Orange League game at Glover Stadium.

Morris’ touchdown finished a 77-yard drive and a tenacious second-half Savanna rally, and finished off Brea-Olinda, the seventh-ranked team in Orange County.

Despite occasional ragged play and 11 penalties for 120 yards, Brea (5-1, 0-1 in league) seemed as if it had control until Savanna quarterback Jeff Belanger warmed up in the second half.

Savanna (3-2-1, 1-0) went nowhere on offense in the first half. Belanger completed three of five passes for 23 yards and leading rusher Jeff Ragos, who entered the game averaging seven yards per carry and 118 per game, was held to four yards in five carries.

But Belanger put an end to the Rebels’ offensive problems, passing for 178 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.

Touchdown passes of 37 and 38 yards to Scott Bird and Paul Waldrop and two successful two-point conversion passes put Savanna in position to win the game with the final drive.

Brea had taken a 20-16 lead on a 28-yard field goal by Marco Hernandez with 2 minutes 9 seconds remaining in the game and afterward Savanna took over on its 23-yard line.

Then Belanger went to work completing passes of five, 23, five, 10, five and nine yards, moving down to the Brea five with 31 seconds left. Belanger also had a 12-yard scramble during the drive.

On his touchdown run, Morris followed a block by Ragos, who finished with 11 yards in nine carries, and fell untouched into the end zone.

Brea had taken a 10-0 lead at the half on a five-yard run by Jaime Baraglia and a 24-yard field goal by Hernandez. The Wildcats also led, 17-8, early in the fourth quarter after Hernandez, who rushed for 107 yards in 16 carries, scored on an 11-yard run.

Brea, which held Savanna to 41 yards total offense in the first half, harassed Belanger the few times he tried to pass in the first half and sacked him twice.

But in the second half, all that changed.

“They were really stuffing us, so we had to open up and fortunately our quarterback was throwing well,” Savanna Coach Fred DiPalma said.