Brea Smothers South Hills to Set Up Western Rematch

Kenny Washington took the handoff, darted toward the goal line . . . and fumbled the ball in and out of the end zone. There went one Brea Olinda touchdown.

When the Wildcats got the ball back, so did Washington. He broke four tackles, darted toward the end zone . . . and fumbled the ball out of bounds. There went another Brea touchdown, and a 7-0 lead looked mighty precarious.

“I tried not to get mad,” Washington said. “I knew I had the whole game to make up for it.”

And so he did. Washington rushed for three touchdowns and 147 yards, leading Brea to a 35-9 rout of West Covina South Hills (8-4) in a Southern Section Division IX second-round playoff game Friday at Brea. The Wildcats (11-0-1) advanced to a semifinal game next Saturday against Western, the only school Brea has not beaten this season. The teams tied, 21-21, in the first week of Orange League play.

In six games since, the Wildcats have scored at least 35 points each time. And, for the fourth time in those six games, they held their opponent to fewer than 10 points. Brea pitched a shutout into the fourth quarter Friday, dented only by a 34-yard field goal by Ian Britt and a 10-yard touchdown pass by Ryan Leadingham.

That was the last pass of the evening, and the lone highlight for Leadingham, a strong-armed quarterback betrayed by a center with propensity for erratic snaps and stymied by a Brea defense that smothered the South Hills wide receivers. The best Leadingham could do was dump short passes to running back Takeshi Matthews, who had 11 receptions for 103 yards.

Leadingham was 20 of 34 for 153 yards. He had four interceptions, including his last pass of the first half and his first pass of the second half. Brea followed each of those interceptions with touchdowns, the first on a run by Washington and the second on a run by Ryan Fortner, to turn a 14-0 lead into a 28-0 lead. The next South Hills possession ended in yet another interception of Leadingham, followed two plays later by another touchdown run by Washington.

Washington’s early lapses meant little, thanks not only to his strong running but also to a Brea defense that guarded its end of the field ferociously until the offense took control. The Wildcats scored only once in the first quarter--on a 35-yard run by Washington--but South Hills did not pierce Brea territory until the second quarter.

Leadingham missed on his first six passes, two of them interceptions, and Brea held South Hills to four first downs and 52 offensive yards in the first half.