LA HABRA- First, you need a main street.

A lot of places in Orange County don't have one. La Habra does.

Then you need a championship football team.

La Habra went awhile without one, but last year the Highlanders won CIF for the third time in six years.

Put those together, and now you can have a parade.

"We've had four of them," Coach Frank Mazzotta was saying Thursday. "We even had one for the team that got to the finals and didn't win. But it's that type of place. Close-knit.

"I remember driving by the school before I started coaching here. I'd see this neat little stadium, without a track around it. I said, you know, this would be a pretty good place to coach."

Now the goal is to ride the fire trucks down La Habra Boulevard once again, underneath the banners on the light poles, the ones that honor the city's soldiers, such as Chad McGree and Joshua Gordon of the Marines, Anthony Cruz of the Navy, Andrew Gillette of the Air Force.

The end of the line is City Hall, for another celebration.

It loomed larger Friday night after the Highlanders throttled Fullerton, 24-7, and won Mazzotta's eighth Freeway League championship.

Ronnie Hillman got loose in the third quarter behind Josh Quezada's block and showed how he can make tackling angles irrelevant. He zipped 70 yards to put La Habra up, 17-0.

But, before that, Quezada burst for a 36-yard score in the first quarter. Then he skipped outside for 36 yards to get La Habra out of trouble in the fourth. That left 44 yards to the end zone, and Quezada took care of that, too, on the next play, his bushy hair streaming out of the back of his helmet like a vapor trail.

Defensively the Highlanders went pad-to-pad with Fullerton's stubborn Michael Allain and got at least a tie. He motored for 112 yards on 27 carries and a touchdown, but the Indians needed more, on a night when even the fans who ringed the fences — forget finding a seat — could feel the contact.

"We've got time for all the praise later," Mazzotta told the team. "Right now, go be with your families."

But the families were already on the field, extending. Eventually some of them would wind up at Draft Picks, the neighborhood sports pub. Friday nights here seem to be a lot more than just football nights.

But then playing football in North County means you probably have played for a Mazzotta or against one.

Frank's brother, Casey, coaches Mt. San Jacinto, and before that he was the defensive coordinator at Fullerton College.

Their dad, Frank, has coached Cerritos College for the past 31 years, and Frank Jr. and Casey played for him. Thirty of the patriarch's former players have become coaches and 16 have played for money, including Cincinnati's T.J. Houzhmandzadeh.

It's tight. Frank Jr. played with Russell Kaufman at Cerritos. Russell's wife, Sylvia, is La Habra's principal.

"Frank was going to Fresno State," his dad said. "I drove him up there, and then I told him, 'You're going to play for me instead,' and drove him back. And he was our best receiver, too."

"Then I went to Utah, and I wasn't enthusiastic about football anymore," the son said. "I came back, and dad told me one day in August that his receiver coach had quit on him, and they didn't have anybody. So I've been coaching ever since."

There was little doubt. The Mazzotta kids were ballboys on the Cerritos sideline. The players would tie little Frank up to trees after practice. The dad would drop both kids off at the school at 8 a.m. and take them home at 10 p.m. "You couldn't do that now," he said.

Mazzotta Sr. never had serious yearnings to join the Division I shuttle.

"Moving from place to place every two years is no way to raise a family," Frank Jr. said.

But there was risk in coming to La Habra, which is not one of those places that automatically wins.

The first team was 3-8. The second team won the league. The booster club put up $10,000 for new weights in the old weight room, then La Habra moved into a new room. Running back Josh Herrera got the Highlanders through the first couple of years, before Herrera went to Cerritos.

This team grew because of two losses. La Habra barely missed executing an onside kick that would have provided a late chance to beat Los Alamitos, and LaHabra threw an incompletion into the end zone that would have tied San Clemente.

"It's funny, but we haven't lost many games after playing Los Al," Mazzotta said. "It's been a good experience for us."Mazzotta didn't mention that La Habra doesn't lose many games, period. He'll save that for the parade.

Contact the writer: mwhicker@ocregister.com