Western Felled by Ill Wind From Draft

Valencia defeated Western, 21-8, Friday night to win the Orange League title, but the score could have been a lot worse . . . had Valencia’s Chris Draft been feeling better.

Draft, sick to his stomach throughout the game, finally vomited after it ended. But not before he dominated play on both sides of the ball. On offense, Draft rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown in 19 carries and caught three passes for 58 yards a touchdown. Defensively, Draft harassed Western quarterback Brandon Brennan all night from his outside linebacker spot, sacking Brennan twice and hitting him as threw on several other occasions.

“I didn’t feel really good,” said Draft, in between coughs. “I just lost my lunch over there.”

But Draft wasn’t about to let an upset stomach ruin his night. He had a league title to win. Last year, Valencia tied Western and Anaheim for the championship.

“I didn’t want a tie this year,” he said. “That’s horrible. There’s only five (other) teams in our league, and three tied for the title. We wanted to win it outright. It seemed like we really wanted it.”

Draft said he could tell his teammates were serious about winning during warm-ups.

“It was real quiet before the game,” he said. “Everybody was real focused. We were all together tonight.”

Valencia (9-1, 5-0 in league) never gave Western (6-3-1, 3-2) a chance to get into the game, dominating from the start. If not for Western defensive back Pedro Calderon’s two interceptions--he returned one 92 yards for a touchdown and another 59 yards--the Pioneers wouldn’t have been involved at all.

Draft scored on the second-to-last play of the first quarter on a 12-yard run that he set up with a 34-yard romp. The Tigers scored on their next possession on a perfect sideline pass from Valencia quarterback Rob Petko to Jermaine Gray, who caught the ball in stride and scored from 50 yards out to make it 14-0 with 7:47 left in the half.

Valencia appeared ready to go up three touchdowns when Calderon intercepted an overthrown Petko pass and took it the distance. Josh Christensen caught the conversion pass from Brennan to make it 14-8 with 8:16 left in the third quarter.

The Pioneers had an opportunity to take the lead when they drove into Valencia territory, but an illegal procedure penalty stalled the drive, forcing a punt.

Western didn’t cross the Valencia 50 again until the last minute.

And Draft had a lot to do with that. He harassed Brennan nearly every time Brennan dropped back.

“Our plan was to pressure Brennan,” Draft said. “They brought me from all angles. I got one sack from coming up the middle. We figured, if we got pressure on him, he’d throw it up.”

Which is about what Brennan did. He completed 11 of 18 passes for 92 yards--his lowest total of the season, One of his passes was intercepted by Luis Garcia. Brennan was usually either on the run or throwing off his back foot. He rarely had time to set up in the pocket and was sacked three times.

Draft clinched the game when he caught a 36-yard touchdown pass from Petko on third and one with 4:30 left in the fourth quarter.

“They figured we were going to ram it in,” Draft said. “Once they faked to me, I was wide open.”