Chargers capture Orange Bowl

LAGUNA HILLS — Down nearly the whole game, the Huntington Beach Pop Warner Junior Pee Wee Green Chargers were being tested like never before.

Cypress kept running and running and running the ball some more Saturday afternoon during the Division I Orange Bowl.

“I thought they might have won,” Huntington Beach lineman Shane Reardon said. “Touchdown after touchdown, and I was scared that we might actually lose a game.”

Yet the Chargers, in the end, displayed the hearts of a champion. And they are, storming back in the fourth quarter to take a 24-20 win at Laguna Hills High.

Quarterback Keith “C.J.” McCord’s five-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Christon with 3:02 left in the game proved to be the winning score. The ensuing defensive stand helped lead the Chargers to their first Division I Orange Bowl victory at any level since 2004.

Undefeated Orange Empire Conference champ Huntington Beach will now set out to earn the title of the best Junior Pee Wee team in Southern California. The Chargers face the Palomar Conference champion — either Torrey Pines or Carlsbad — in the Wescon Pop Warner regional semifinals at 1 p.m. Saturday, at San Clemente High.

“Enjoy the heck out of this, because you earned it,” Coach John Siebel told his team after topping previously unbeaten Cypress. “Now we’ve got two weeks to show that we’re the best team in Southern California. Expect a war, like today. It will be.”

It was a war against Cypress, which built a 20-8 lead midway through the third quarter on Randall Gonzalez’s 13-yard touchdown run on an inside handoff.

“It was a battle,” Chargers lineman Brandon Womble said. “It was hard because some plays they did counters and reverse. They faked it really well.”

Yet Huntington Beach kept battling. McCord’s pass to Michael Bala went for 27 yards, then Sean Strom ran for 14 yards and Johnny Siebel caught a pass for nine yards as the Chargers moved the ball downfield. McCord then hooked up with Bala on a 12-yard touchdown slant over the middle, and after a Travis Burleson two-point kick, Huntington Beach had trimmed the deficit to 20-16 with under four minutes left in the third quarter.

“It was pretty hard, then it started getting easier when we got into the second half,” Chargers linebacker DeMario Cobbins said. “They were slowing down.”

Cypress still looked like it had control after the Centurions’ Casey Perreira intercepted a pass with seven minutes left in the game. On fourth and four, the Cypress running back had first-down yardage, but Reardon stripped the ball and Christon recovered it, giving the ball back to Huntington Beach with about five minutes left.

“I thought we were going to win as soon as we got the ball back,” McCord said.

He helped it happen, immediately hooking up with Bala on a 69-yard reception that took it all the way to the Cypress six-yard line.

“I didn’t even know I was going to catch it,” Bala said. “But then, I just started running.”

On third and goal, McCord found Christon on a fade to the corner of the end zone, and Huntington Beach had its first lead of the game.

The Chargers made it stick and the Orange Bowl was theirs. On fourth and 12 for Cypress, Burleson popped the quarterback just after he released the ball and McCord broke up the pass, giving Huntington Beach the ball back with under two minutes to go.

Bala finished with five catches for 161 yards and a touchdown. Danny Cassaro had 43 yards on three catches for the Chargers and Christon had a pair of touchdown grabs.

McCord finished 14 of 22 for 233 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Abel Diaz also had a good day on the ground with 65 yards, behind solid line play from players like Jackson McCleery.

“Biggest day of my life so far,” said Reardon, a smile on his face, after the game. “It’s amazing. Just to even make it to here, it was amazing.”