By Duane Barker
(Whittier, CA) The La Serna Lancers played host Friday night to the Warren Bears and like most Bears would be, they were not a nice house guest beating the Lancers 39-21 at Thorstenson Stadium on the campus of California High School.
Both teams started out a little slow on offense but the Bears got it together with 4:20 left to play in the first. Madden Iamaleava found Jordan Ross deep down the near sideline for 65-yards and a score.Judith Luna came on to boot through the extra point for the 7-0 lead.
The score remained 7-0 until late in the opening frame. Iamaleava found Jace Brown from 11-yards away. With :40 left the two point conversion failed and Warren led 13-0.
Early in the second quarter the Lancers gave their faithful something to cheer about. Jayden Northrup got behind the Bear secondary and Aiden Leonardo found him for a 40-yard touchdown strike. Christian Miranda added the point after to cut Warren’s lead to six.
La Serna got their first and last lead of the night when Leonardo and Northrup made the connection again, this time from 29-yards out. The pitch and catch capped a 6-play 44-yard drive.
With time running out in the first half, the Bears wasted no time regaining the lead. On the ensuing drive Warren needed only four plays to cover 44-yards and get the score. Brown and Iamaleava connected on a 29-yard score of their own with less than a minute left to play in the second. Again the two point conversion failed but the Bears had a 19-14 lead going into the break.
Coming out of the locker room the Bears wasted no time to get on the board again. Iamaleava found his favorite target on the night, Ross on a 60-yard bomb to paydirt. Warren went for two again and were unsuccessful but increased their lead to eleven.
Justice Croffie set Warren up with great field position when he picked off a Leonardo pass at his own 20 and returned it down to the La Serna 35. Four plays later Kelton Strickland scored on an eight yard run. This time the Bears called on Luna who converted the extra point.
With 2:34 remaining in the third, the Lancers went on a 10-play 65-yard drive lead by Jordan Bonilla who came on in relief of Leonardo. The drive was finished off by Owen Long who powered his way across the goal line from seven yards out.
Warren ate up yardage and the clock on their next drive that covered 65-yards on 14 plays with Strickland getting his second score of the evening. Luna again converted on the extra point.
Leonardo made his return to the lineup on the next series and led his team down the field in to Bear country. The drive however ended abruptly with Leonardo was picked off for the third time in the game at the Warren 15 by Maurice Stepter. From there the Bears killed the rest of the clock on the ensuing drive.
It was a big night for Iamaleava who completed 21 of 34 passes for 410 yards and four scores. Ross caught the most from Iamaleava with nine for 262-yards and two touchdowns/
Northrup led the Lancer receiving corp with six for 97 and the two touchdowns.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for La Serna as they travel south to Rancho Santa Margarita to take on Tesoro.
For the Bears it’s a long road trip to Versailles, KY to take on the Woodford County Yellowjackets.
La Serna’s players do just fine at the next level. 6 players from La Serna have played in the NFL/Drafted.
Dave Dalby 0L
Dave Cullity OL
Tupe Peko OL
Adam Snyder OL
Chris Dunn* LB
Jalen Thompson$ DB
*Drafted by the Falcons.
$ Transfered after starting for LS CIF title team as a Sophomore & currently an active NFL player.
Right now LS has a S @Boise St, a DE @UTEP, had a WR @Arizona last year, & has a S getting D1 offers this year, and a former player in the NFL.
How many NFL players went to your HS?
Dont get what? Players going to programs where their talent is stagnated? I get the culture at LASerna is team first there r various programs that also have a team first mentality but also allow kids to shine as a team and individually and also win. What is the benefit to playing the likes of Los Alamitos, Warren, Tesoro n Damien if the players dont get numbers and arent winning? Is it just so daddy’s can brag about playing a tough schedule and still lose, is it to brag about being a big fish in a little pond?
Take it for what it’s worth, but La Serna has a 25.2 calpreps rating. The next best team according to calpreps in the Del Rio is El Rancho with a -18.2 rating which is a 33 point difference. The lowest rated team in the Del Rio is Santa Fe with a -42.3 rating. That means there is a greater difference between # 1 and #2 than there is between #2 and #5.
The only other league with that kind of imbalance that I could find was the Moore League where Long Beach Poly’s 59.5 rating is 26 points higher than Millikan’s 33.2 rating. Milikan’s has an 81 point difference to Cabrillo’s -48.5 rating.
What these 2 leagues have in common is that they are predominantly from 1 big district and league shuffling would stir up the status quo a bit too much. Same could be said for the freeway league but orange county has determined that they will use calpreps to help create competitive balance.
@LA Preps…you just don’t get it and you never will.
If you are a Wide Out of the caliber of Northrup, what in tarnation are you doing at La Serna in a Delaware Wing-T offense where you have a ceiling of maybe 500 yards. In the day and age where kids are doing anything to go to the next level, logic would tell us you would play in a spread offense where you catch the ball, why??
Yeah LS players really excell at the next level. Maybe their D1 guys can get playing time at Rio Hondo JC like other LS stars. Peterson forgot to mention your big game this week. Not nice. La Serna 48 Tesoro 14.
Owen Long – LS legacy, kid can play big boy ball, hope he gets his opportunity at next level
Jayden Northrup – Not sure where he came from but def not LS kid, hands down best WR in the area but unfortunately he can’t showcase his talents.
All Stars from whittier? you guys keep saying LS has but I didn’t see anyone special Friday aside from these two. Maybe that big LB. nobody looked special or spectacular. Looked to me like a bunch of undersized kids who just know how to play football. Strong defense, good tackling, control the clock and run the ball. Nothing flashy just try to get the W.
Warren, we have to many athletes for LS , and it showed.
i love when LS pounds ER to the ground. 50-0 this year
Here we go again the same troll commenting to himself attempting to stir the pot.
@Spin
Just take your kid out of the program if you’re mad about him not getting playing time. Its okay we won’t miss him.
Despite getting all-star players from all over LS still sucks and that is why they have to stay in the Del Rio. Any place else they will get clubbed and they know it.
. Very poor coaching and favoritism rots them from the inside. LS would come in last place in the Gateway League. So better keep happy and bang away on El Rancho and Santa Fe football on these boards because thats all you really have.
Warren= speed. La Serna could’ve had a better game. Not saying they would’ve won but it could’ve been a closer game a lot of small mistakes. They’ll bounce back next week.
Warren seems to have La Serna’s #
Interesting note –
Over La Sena’s last 62 games
LS either led or trailed by 7 pts or less
at some point of the 4th Qtr.in 59 of the 62 games.
2 of those 3 games that they didn’t get within
7 pts at some point of the 4th Qtr were against
Warren last night, and against Warren 3 years ago.
The only other game like that for LS was against St Francis
in a playoff loss 20-0, a game where LS had 2 TDs called back on penalties.
So only 3 non competitive 4th Qtrs for LS in their last 62 games
and 2 of them vs Warren.