Gomez Gets La Habra Past Sonora
Jake Gomez scored two touchdowns to help La Habra beat Sonora, 28-14, for the La Habra city championship Friday night in a Freeway League game at La Habra High.
La Habra (3-6, 2-2 in league) has not lost to Sonora since 1978.
Gomez scored his first touchdown, a 22-yard run, with 6 minutes 9 seconds left in the first quarter to give La Habra a 7-0 lead. He also scored La Habra’s final touchdown, again from the 22-yard line, with 11:54 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Gomez carried 13 times for 122 of La Habra’s 208 rushing yards.
La Habra Coach Jack Nicholls credited his defense for the victory.
“Our defense did an excellent job. Assistant coach Frank Shiz came up with a man-to-man defense that allowed us to stop Sonora’s passing game and sack the quarterback.”
Orlando Salcedo and Jason Heil eached sacked Sonora quarterback Robert Knowles twice.
Twice in the fourth quarter, Sonora (3-6, 1-2) watched good field position turn bad because of the La Habra sacks.
“Our secondary played a great second half with a two-deep, three-deep man defense,” Nicholls said.
Sonora’s Knowles completed 10 of 28 passes for 97 yards and threw two touchdowns.
With 1:18 left in the second quarter, Knowles completed a 12-yard pass to Brian Larsen to narrow La Habra’s lead to seven points, 14-7.
He also completed a 44-yard touchdown pass to Noel Ishikawa with 1:54 left in the fourth quarter.
La Habra took a 21-7 lead late in the third quarter on Mike Dominguez’s 14-yard run.