Offense, Defense Make Big Plays in El Modena Victory

Brett Daeley took a screen pass from quarterback Matt Mitchell 84 yards down the left sideline for the winning touchdown, and El Modena’s defense then came up with a big play to hold off a last-second La Habra threat for a 14-7 nonleague victory Friday at La Habra.

Daeley raced untouched along the sideline, put a nifty move on defensive back Alex Aldaco at the La Habra 35 and raced in to the end zone with 9:34 remaining.

La Habra recovered a fumbled snap on a punt at the El Modena 27 with less than a minute to go. After three completions by quarterback Sonje Berg, La Habra had the ball at the El Modena eight-yard line with seven seconds left. But Jeff Smith sacked Berg to end the game.

The game marked the coaching debut of both El Modena’s Steve Howard and La Habra’s Rick Milhizer.

Donny Cisneros gave La Habra a 7-0 first-half lead on a 10-yard pass over the middle from Berg, and La Habra’s defense stifled the El Modena attack for the first 24 minutes.

Mitchell engineered a 10-play, 78-yard drive to start the second half, capped off by a 16-yard touchdown pass to Chris Goodwin.

In his first varsity start, Berg completed 21 of 31 passes for 178 yards and no interceptions. Mitchell completed nine of 16 for 161 yards.