BUENA PARK – Much of the pregame excitement for the Cypress-Buena Park game was about the matchup of Cypress’ Quinten Pounds and Buena Park’s Jaylinn Hawkins.
Pounds and Hawkins lived up to it. But there were other difference-makers on the field Friday night.
Buena Park junior quarterback Zach Taylor passed for 337 yards and five touchdowns as the Coyotes beat Cypress, 43-34, in a CIF-Southern Section Southwest Division first-round playoff game at Buena Park High.
Buena Park (10-1) will play Villa Park (9-2) in a second-round game Friday at Buena Park High. Villa Park beat Buena Park, 66-40, last year in the Southwest Division first round.
The Coyotes are the only Freeway League team to get through the first round. League mates La Habra, Fullerton and Troy lost Friday.
Cypress finished 8-3. The Centurions were the No. 2 team from the Empire League.
Cypress played the second half without quarterback Nick Buras, who was ejected late in the first half. Buras, who had been averaging 134 passing yards a game, threw only one pass, an incompletion.
Pounds took over at quarterback and threw three touchdown passes. He also rushed for 166 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries. One of the county’s better all-around players, Pounds, a cornerback who covered Hawkins, also had an interception in the end zone at the end of the first half.
Hawkins had five receptions for 127 yards and two touchdowns.
Max Rivera had three touchdown catches for Buena Park. He finished with 152 yards receiving.
With so much attention on Hawkins on the outside, that left the middle open for Taylor to throw the ball to Rivera, Will Latham and Mathew Sifuentes. Taylor said the Coyotes noticed that opportunity on game film.
“We saw that (the Centurions) like to go two safeties wide,” Taylor said. “So we just spread them out.”
Cypress took an early lead. Buena Park went ahead in the second quarter, stretched the lead to nine in the third quarter and saw Cypress pull within one point before the Coyotes pulled away later in the quarter.
Buena Park coach Anthony White liked the way his team kept turning back Cypress.
“We played with a lot of heart,” White said. “We got great effort from our defense.”
Tofa Tupou had four sacks for the Coyotes.
Benny Morales caught two second-half touchdown passes from Pounds. The second one cut the Buena Park lead to 36-28 midway through the fourth quarter. The Coyotes’ Marcus Loudon put the game away with a 51-yard touchdown run.
Pounds scored a touchdown on a 66-yard run, on the game’s second play from scrimmage to give the Centurions a 7-0 lead. Pounds went around the left side, got into the Buena Park secondary and outran Hawkins to the end zone.
Hawkins soon got some personal revenge. On first down at the Buena Park 27, Taylor threw to Hawkins in the middle of the end zone. Pounds, covering Hawkins, got a hand on the football and Hawkins made a diving catch of the deflected ball for the touchdown. The kick for the extra-point was blocked, leaving Cypress with a 7-6 lead.
Coyotes receivers got open over the middle frequently Friday. That’s how Rivera scored on a 77-yard pass – going across the middle, he pulled in a Taylor pass at Buena Park’s 40 and took off from there for the touchdown that put the Coyotes on top, 13-7.
Hector Aguayo kicked a 35-yard field goal to push the Buena Park lead to 16-7 in the second quarter.
Pounds often lines up to take direct snaps from center, and with Buras out he did plenty of that Friday. With 28 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Pounds hit Sean Roberts on a 3-yard touchdown pass. The extra-point kick was wide left, keeping the Buena Park lead at 16-13 at halftime.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
