Road Isn’t Hard for Laguna Hills

It’s not easy to march into another team’s football stadium and methodically dominate the host.

But that’s what Laguna Hills did Friday night in its 56-14 victory over La Mirada in the Southern Section Division VIII title game.

One of the most difficult things visiting teams face in big games is the hostile home crowd. And the fans who arrived in La Mirada for tailgate parties and barbecues as much as two hours before the championship game, were poised to see what they thought would be a walkover. In the bleachers, many blue-and-gold-clad fans appeared to be confident. After all, the Matadores have lost only three times in their stadium in the 1990s.

“They came and saw us play last week in the mud and in the mud, you just look average,” said Laguna Hills assistant coach Marty Spalding. “I think they thought that they were going to have an easy time of it.”

It’s hard to deny that Michael Jones’ 369 yards rushing, or the play of stellar linebacker Anthony Daye, didn’t play a bigger role in Laguna Hills’ even bigger victory. But Laguna Hills quarterback Tommy Banning said that his team knew it would be a big task playing at La Mirada’s home field.

“We wanted to start with a big drive,” Banning said. “We figured we could shut them down if we did that.”

First-quarter scoring drives of 57, 50, and 22 yards silenced Matadore fans in the estimated crowd of 7,500 quickly. The play that sent La Mirada reeling was a brilliantly executed end-around of 22 yards to Jeff Fischer that gave Laguna Hills a 21-0 lead. Spalding and Paul Weinberger called for the play after noting that La Mirada was stacking the middle to stop Jones.

Fischer lined up in the slot on the left side of the Hawks’ line and swept around right end untouched.

“We came into this game figuring we had a record of 0-0 and we needed to get off to a good start,” Fischer said.

After that play, as they walked off the field, La Mirada defensive players, who had given up only 73 points in 13 previous games, had their heads down.

But Laguna Hills scored twice more, once following a La Mirada fumble.

The Matadores’ only highlight in the disastrous first half was an 81-yard punt return by Aaron Gomez that led to the team’s first touchdown.

That ignited the crowd. But the excitement didn’t last.

On its next possession La Mirada’s drive ended on an interception by Nick Harvey.

The crowd went silent once again. When Jones scampered 80-yards on the opening play in the third quarter for another score, La Mirada fans headed for the exits.