La Habra took leisurely trip to game

Notes from Orange County high school football:

La Habra High's trip to San Clemente for last Friday's nonleague game began at 2 p.m.

That was when the charter buses left the school and headed south on the approximately 46-mile trip.

Why so early?

"The last thing you want to do is be rushing around and trying to beat traffic," La Habra coach Frank Mazzotta said.

The Highlanders reached San Clemente at approximately 3 p.m. The team went to lunch and then to a local park for a pregame walk-through.

La Habra also had two buses of fans, adding to the playoff atmosphere that surrounded the game.

This is common whenever La Habra makes the trip south, Mazzotta said. La Habra followed the same script when it played at Corona del Mar (2002) and Tesoro (2004).

How does this script differ from league road games?

"It is not even close," Mazzotta said.

San Clemente will take the trip next year, when the two-year series continues at La Habra.

• Many people have the Fullerton-La Habra game on Nov. 7 circled on the calendar, but what about the rest of the league?

"Sunny Hills (3-2) has won some games and has beaten University, Buena Park (1-4) is improved and Fullerton is ready to go," Mazzotta said.

La Habra will open its Freeway League schedule Friday against Sonora. Fullerton (4-1) begins against Buena Park. Sunny Hills will visit Troy (1-4) in another league opener.

• Other key league openers include Magnolia-Western in the Orange League, El Dorado-Canyon (Century), Cypress-Kennedy (Empire) and Dana Hills-San Clemente (South Coast).

• The Mission Viejo-Tesoro game is the Fox Sports Prime Ticket Game of the Week and will be broadcast live Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The game will be played at Tesoro High, and Tesoro athletic director Gil Ramirez confirmed that all tickets have been sold. Tesoro's football stadium seats 4,000.

• Banning of Wilmington fullback Joel Panteau, who was injured in Friday's game against Orange Lutheran, was released from Hoag Memorial Hospital Saturday morning, the Daily Breeze reported at www.inside socal.com/southbaypreps.

An MRI revealed a pinched nerve in his neck. Panteau was injured on the final play of Orange Lutheran's 42-7 victory.

• With three games involving ranked teams on this week's schedule, next week's county Top 10 could have a different look than this week's. Here is how I voted in this week's poll: 1. Mission Viejo; 2. Servite; 3. Edison; 4. Los Alamitos; 5. Tesoro; 6. Orange Lutheran; 7. Mater Dei; 8. Newport Harbor; 9. San Clemente; 10. Esperanza.

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com