La Habra's second-half surge stops Cypress

LA HABRA - La Habra already has won four CIF football championships this decade.

How has this program been so successful?

"No. 1, we have great kids," La Habra coach Frank Mazzotta said.

One of those great kids wears No. 2 — Joshua Quezada. He rushed for 300 yards and four touchdowns Saturday as La Habra beat Cypress, 35-21, in a CIF-Southern Section Southwest Division semifinal at La Habra High.

La Habra (12-1) will play Trabuco Hills (12-1) in the Southwest Division championship game at Angel Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Cypress finished 11-2. The Centurions' other loss was to Mater Dei in a nonleague game.

The Highlanders are not only going for a fifth CIF title this decade, they also are trying to make it three in a row. They beat Tustin at Angel Stadium in last year's Southwest final and beat Fullerton in the '07 final at Cal State Fullerton. La Habra also won CIF football titles in '02 and '03.

La Habra senior linebacker Johnny Zavala said this year's Highlanders team might be better than the '08 team.

"Better team chemistry," Zavala said. "We're more like a family this year. We just go out there and do our job."

A big job La Habra's defense had Saturday was trying to control Cypress senior running back Akeelie Muhammad, who went into the game with 2,314 yards and 42 touchdowns and was averaging 209 yards rushing a game. He ran for 193 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries against La Habra, but 122 of those came in the first half. In the second half, Muhammad was limited to 71 yards.

Quezada was the offensive star of the second half. He had 190 of his 300 yards in that second half, and scored three touchdowns. For the season, Quezada has 1,963 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Cypress took a 14-7 lead into the third quarter. Quezada tied it on a 31-yard run to finish the Highlanders' half-opening drive. Cypress took the lead again, 21-14, on a great play-action pass from quarterback Zack Ortiz to wide-open Jared Cohen for a 48-yard scoring play.

But the Highlanders put together another productive drive to tie it again, 21-21, with Quezada scoring on a 28-yard run. It was another of his start-this-way, cut-and-go-that-way runs.

A 3-yard touchdown run by Quezada with 8:16 to go in the fourth quarter gave La Habra its first lead at 28-21. A 23-yard pass from quarterback Cody Clements to tight end Chris Gonzales set up that one.

Clements put it away with a 5-yard touchdown run to make it 35-21 with 2:37 remaining. A 30-yard run by Quezada was a key play in that drive.

Cypress scored first on a 70-yard run by Muhammad. As he has done on so many of his 44 touchdown runs this year, Muhammad appeared to be trapped, somehow escaped and zig-zagged his way to the end zone.

La Habra tied it in the second quarter on Quezada's first touchdown run, of 5 yards through a huge hole. Cypress regained the lead, 14-7, on a 3-yard touchdown run by Muhammad with 3:40 left in the half.

Then, in the second half, the Highlanders just kept giving it to Quezada.

"He's the guy we're going to go to in key situations," said Mazzotta, who is 135-35-1 in 11 seasons at La Habra. "If we can run it, we're going to run it. If we can pass it, we're going to pass it."

La Habra was able to run it, like the Highlanders have so many times this season. They ran it straight to Angel Stadium and a chance at another CIF championship.