Fryer: Three winners, many champions

Cypress overcame as many obstacles as Indiana Jones does when he is pursuing something historic.

Cypress lost its first two Empire League games. The Centurions then won their final two league games to finish fourth in the six-team league - not good enough for a guaranteed CIF-Southern Section playoff berth, but their 6-3 overall record was enough to get one of the Southern Division’s two at-large berths.

They had to open the playoffs with a road game against second-seeded Laguna Hills, a league champion. The Centurions won, 30-26.

In the second round, Cypress had to play Anaheim, which beat Cypress in the Southern semifinals in 2006. In the semifinals, the opponent was Valencia, an Empire League co-champion that Cypress did not play during the regular season, as that game was canceled because of area wildfires and the resulting poor air quality.

Cypress beat Valencia, 28-21, to set up a rematch against another Empire co-champion, Pacifica, in the Southern championship game. Cypress had lost to Pacifica during the regular season.

And in the game against Pacifica, Cypress trailed by 17 points.

Indiana Jones gets a lot of cuts and bruises and close calls, but he ultimately always gets what he wants. So did Cypress.

The Centurions came back to take the lead in the Southern final at Cerritos College, then stopped Pacifica on the Cypress 1-yard line on the final play of the game.

Like Dr. Jones, Cypress came away with something historic - the school’s first CIF football championship.

Two other county teams made school history.

El Dorado won back-to-back CIF football championships for the first time, with a 13-12 victory over Trabuco Hills in the Southwest Division final.

La Habra went undefeated for the first time in school history, capping a 13-0 season with a 16-6 over Fullerton in the Southeast Division championship game.

Two of Friday’s games featured teams from the same league. The Southern Division game was an all-Empire League final, and the Southeast game was an all-Freeway final.

El Dorado is a Century League team, and Trabuco Hills plays in the Sea View League. Figuratively, though, they are in the same league. Both proved again Friday night that they have outstanding defenses, and offenses good enough to win.

They were very even going into the game: Both were 12-1, El Dorado was averaging 29 points a game while allowing nine, and Trabuco Hills was scoring 28 while allowing nine.

So it was fitting that their Southwest final at Orange Coast College was decided by one point. And it was fitting, too, that El Dorado’s Anthony Laurenzi, the sack leader with 23, blocked an extra-point kick in the first half, a play that turned out very important later.

La Habra had to grind out a 16-6 victory over Fullerton, which certainly proved itself worthy of being in a final by making the Highlanders work hard for it.

La Habra’s offense gets a lot of attention and rightfully so with quarterback Chris Morales, receiver Petey Puga, and versatile running back Ronnie Hillman. But the Highlanders’ defense is very good, too, as it was Friday when it held Fullerton to its second-lowest scoring output of the season.

So we have three CIF champions in Orange County: Cypress, El Dorado and La Habra. There could be four after Saturday’s game, in which St. Margaret’s puts its county-high 27-game winning streak on the line against Brentwood in the Northeast Division championship game at Notre Dame High of Sherman Oaks.

Really, though, even the teams that lost Friday night are champions. From spring football through summer passing leagues, practices in the heat of August, nonleague games and those pressure-packed league games, any team that still is playing in December had to play like a champion to get there.

But only three from Friday will get CIF championship patches and rings, because they shined brightest under those Friday night lights. This particular Friday night was one adventurous night in Orange County football.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com