GARDEN GROVE – La Quinta shut out Century in the first half but had to hold on late for a 21-14 nonleague victory at Bolsa Grande High on Thursday night.
With La Quinta leading 14-0, Century strung together a nearly seven-minute, 15-play drive to open the third quarter. Fernando Cambray finished off the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run.
La Quinta (2-3) responded with a nearly five-minute drive and a 1-yard touchdown run by Javier Enriquez for a 21-7 lead with eight seconds left in the third quarter.
Century (2-3) used those last seconds for a 53-yard pass from Cambray to Joe Flores. The Centurions scored four plays later, in the fourth quarter, as Cambray hit Michael Soria on a 19-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-14.
Century’s next drive was snuffed out as a double reverse was broken up, and Timothy Nguyen recovered the fumble with three minutes left.
La Quinta failed to run out the clock, and Century got one more opportunity.
With 37 seconds left, La Quinta was called for a roughing-the-passer penalty, and Cambray followed up by hitting Flores with a 33-yard pass into La Quinta territory.
Century’s comeback fell short as Vy Vo pulled down an interception with 18 seconds left to seal the Aztecs’ victory.
La Quinta opened the scoring late in the first quarter.
The Aztecs capitalized on a 44-yard punt return by Derek Le as Dylan Do scored shortly afterward on a 19-yard run for a 7-0 lead.
The teams battled it out on the ground with similar run-option offenses before La Quinta broke through in the air late in the second quarter.
Gilbert Napoles hit Victor Garnica in stride for a 55-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead for La Quinta at halftime.
