The Calhoun Six to Watch: Trabuco Hills vs. La Habra
December 2nd, 2008, 10:38 pm · 29 Comments · posted by Damian Calhoun, OCVarsity.com since 2004
Trabuco Hills (8-4) vs. La Habra (10-2)
Saturday, 7 p.m., at La Habra High
Outlook: Here are two of the hottest teams in the county.
La Habra has won seven consecutive games since losing to San Clemente on Oct. 10. Trabuco Hills has won eight of its past nine games since a 0-3 start. Something has to give.
The Highlanders didn’t play a clean game against El Dorado in the quarterfinals. La Habra had two touchdowns called back because of holding penalties, had 105 totals yards in penalties and committed two turnovers in a 23-14 victory.
Once they clean all of that up, the Highlanders are dangerous especially with the "Lightning and Thunder" combination of Ronnie Hillman and Joshua Quezada carrying the ball.
Trabuco Hills has been a different team since quarterback Jason Mayer returned from a wrist injury. Mayer has completed 62.7 percent of his passes for 1,984 yards. He completed 13 of 19 passes for 201 and three touchdowns against Western last week.
The Mustangs also had a big night on the ground, but not from Shane DeCillo. Donnie Simonsen filled in and rushed for 191 yards.
Can the Mustangs protect Mayer and create running lanes for Simonsen or DeCillo? Or will the Hillman-Quezada-Randall Nygren Show be too much for Trabuco Hills to handle?
MORE OF THE CALHOUN SIX:
- Tesoro vs. Orange Lutheran
- Tustin vs. Canyon
- Corona del Mar vs. Mayfair
- Laguna Hills vs. Norwalk
- St. Margaret's vs. Maranatha
- Bonus: Long Beach Poly vs. Lakewood
29 Comments
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I feel that the Mustangs will suffer intense pressure all game long from the La Habra defense. The running game will be tough to prosecute with the TH offense. The passing game might pick-up a first down now and again, but I don't see them passing for their average completion.
The Highlander offense has a habit of racking up points because of their explosive running talents. I can't see the TH defense being anymore sucessful at attenuating LH scoring anymore than all the other teams they have faced in the past two years, save Los Al and San Clemente.
San Clemente played both teams in Saturday's semifinal this season, and they trimmed the manes pretty close on the Mustangs, while barely eeking out a one TD win against La Habra.
This will be a fun contest to watch. Good luck to all players.
I am looking foward to watching this game.It will be a battle for sure. I feel La Habras defense should pave the way to the championship. TH is a fine ball club but La Habra is a notch above the rest. Good luck to both teams.
no mention of the mustang defense,humm. says alot here about this match up. CLAN defense will again prove to much . Other than a half back pass, Wilson and co were hit hard and kept in check all nite by great speed and great defensive scheeming by the clans defensive coaches.Penalties and turn overs can be corrected,so if you cant mention the mustangs,defense, how can you stop the show[thunder, lightning and the nitro.GO CLAN!!!!!
Blurp from MaxPreps.com website about La Habra Football...
One of the hallmarks for a true high-quality program is consistency from year to year. This definitely describes La Habra High School, as the program has won or shared 5 of the last 6 Freeway League titles (they took 2nd in the lone "off" year). Even more impressive is that they have advanced to at least the semifinals of their respective Southern Section playoff division (Southeast or D-IX) in each of the last 6 years, winning 3 titles, including last year. There's not much sign of letting up, as 10 starters return and the incoming JV team finished 9-0 last year. Ordinarily, not returning a starting QB or RB would cause concern, but the track record for the Highlanders is undeniable (a drop off for them may be only a semifinal appearance in '08). Incidentally, their new QB, Randall Nygren, was an All-Southeast Division selection last year at safety. Partially due to the success of the La Habra program, the Freeway League has been moved up to the Southwest Division. That success has not gone unnoticed, as Pac-5 powers Los Alamitos and San Clemente have found their way onto the Highlanders' non-league schedule.
Is it the:Home turf? LH crowd? Great support? Tenacious team? that makes for a winning team? oh HELL YESSSSSSSSSSS...all of the above. I will be there with my colors, bells,whistles,horns, loving friends and a lot of throat lozenges!!! And to coin a phrase, may the best TEAM (MAN) WIN!!! You rock HIGHLANDERS!!
It's a mistake to look at San Clemente's scores against La Habra and Trabuco Hills for comparisons.
The Mustangs didn't have their starting QB when they played the Tritons. SC still would have won, but not by that margin.
Lots of talk and chatter by the Clan...No doubt you guys are good, but you don't face the same speed in the Freeway League...We will see what happens...Mustangs looking forward to being all over your backs like white on rice! Just ask Ruben Ortega and Mooksie...
We have a lot of young players stepping up to help our team win in the playoffs and our defense is been keeping our opponents at bay and our opponents are all watching the playoffs and wondering what happened. Some blame the refs calls or too many mistakes, but if you look at the stats it is very clear why we win. These are the games we love to see and here the excuses later on why the mustangs are still playing. Good luck Trabuco Hills.
ok all i have to say is la habra is WAYYYYYYYYYY over rated!!
el dorado shouldve destroyed them. el dorado is a better ball club by far
and we beat trabucco in the finals last year and im telling you that there just like us! la habra is either going down to trabucco this week or losing to tustin in the finals. (which eldo beat tustin)
go mustangs, tillers , and most of all HAWKS!!!
Alright we are not over rated we had many turnovers and mental mistakes against you guys (hawks) but we still managed to pull thru and score 16 CONSECUTIVE POINTS which got US the WIN over rated i think not and as to this week all we have to do is eliminate mistakes.....and buy the way the refs were well on your teams side and we still won so el do just start practicing for next season and as for this week trabuco is good it shall be a good game and if we win and tustin advances we could stop them cause all they do is run and we have shut down one of the county's best michael allain so it should be a pretty good match
who would call themselves cheesez anyway. what kind of cheese are you ?fromunda or just bitterman. destroyed who? you arent trashing your coaches here are you, dare you to identifie your self to them after that statement. Over rated? only lower level team to actually compete against 2 top ten programs in pac 5. and like i siad your only big play was a half back pass,that resulted in a missed field goal .get over your own smell cheesez. and if trabuco is just like you all we have to worry about is which refs come to play or some idiot working the chains with his red headed mohawk,was that you , bitterman
Blah Blah Blah...The Clan is going to do this, The Clan is going to do that.... You guys are going skiing with Western and Valencia!!!
Have an epic tailgate party my friends...This is that last one of the year!!!
GO MUSTANGS!!!!!!
Okay, I try to be as nice as possible on this forum, but seriously La Habra's defense is the best in this division, just look at the statistics, I will be surprised if the mustangs score more than ten points, it's just not going to happen, last week we faced one of the best quarter backs in orange county, and stopped him, and Mustang man La Habra is going to do all of that, you can stop Ronnie, but then you have josh, and if you stop Josh then you have Ronnie, and then there is Randall, what do you have?
We don't have tailgate parties at home, so yes, we will enjoy one last epic tailgate party at THE BIG A. Jump on the train, it's gettin' ready to roll!!!! CLAN PRIDE
thats right CLAN PRIDE
The posts were civil until we got to #9. Then, for whatever reason, a few decided to jump into the toilet.
Its true the freeway league needs better teams! Watch for Sunny Hills in the next few years. Troy won't be down for long either. But remember, we've played 7 games outside of the freeway league this season, scoring no less than 21 points. Our losses to SC and LA were within 7 points and we were right there until the end. We play hard for 48 minutes and make no excuses.
Let there be NO MISTAKE, this is going to be a great game! Trabuco Hills is a great team and they have my respect! La Habra is a great team and will give it all they have too!
Let's hope for a clean game on both sides, good officiating, and may the best team win.
Trabuco Hills, it will be an honor to have you as our guest and I hope you feel welcome. Play hard and expect the same! Its "ONE and DONE" and only one of us will be practicing next week. La Habra gets my (biased) vote, but I'm not foolish enough to count my chickens just yet...and neither should you. Cheer for your teams and we'll see you on Saturday!
(BTW, there is a small THHS party at Draft Picks in La Habra before the game. Get there early to beat the traffic and enjoy some pizza and libations while watching all the sports events on their 33 big screens! http://www.draftpickspizza.com/)
Dino Darling
LHHS Football Booster President
"The cheezes" and "mustang man",,,,,you two need to quit flapping your gums.
Your making the Trabuco Hills Football program look bad.
OCVarsity amanuensis Tobolski indicates you should not compare scores of the meetings between Trabuco Hills and La Habra against San Clemente.
I appreciate the point that the very talented Mustang QB was not in the game with San Clemente. I would proffer that the QB does not score points for the other team.
I believe you can compare the abilities of the defense by the opponents score. If you brush aside the efforts of the offense of the Mustangs and Highlanders in their respective games with San Clemente, you can surmise either San Clemente had an "off-night" or the weapons-grade defense of La Habra torpedoed the Tritons.
It will be interesting to see this game because the Mustangs have shown steady improvement all season. They promise to bring a better team Saturday, than if this game was in week six. I am sure the Clan will be ready to play at the highest level.
I feel lucky to be able to watch both teams with all these fine young men play.
Love to see all the passion from both teams fans great job backing your schools, i have had the privelage of seeing both these schools play this year and both are very solid programs with very good fan support, should be a great atmosphere at this game and lot's of exciting action on the field, i Like La Habra in a very good game that they pull ahead for good in the second half and win comfortably, good luck to both teams and play injury free
Dont know much about Trabuco Hills except they are well coached and have a solid running game but Ive seen La Habra play twice this year and if there is a better run stopper tha the safety David Arteaga in CIF Id sure like to know who he is this kid is real good and tackles straight up as good as Ive ever seen in high school so i pick La Habra because of such a strong defense good luck AND STAY SAFE TO ALL GONNA BE A GREAT GAME
T
To our boy's in BLUE. play hard, play safe, and GO GET THEM LA HABRA HIGHLANDERS ALL THE WAY
I JUST WANT TO WISH OUR BOYS IN BLUE THE BEST OF LUCK IN THE WHOLE WORLD PLAY HARD AND YOUR BEST . GO HIGHLANDERS ALL THE WAY GO INTO THE FIELD WITH FAITH AND COURAGE TO DEAL WITH YOUR OPPONENTS . PLAY HARD LET'S SHOW WHO WE REALLY ARE #1
Empire Fan,
I'd have to agree with you on all your points. The La Habra starting defense has allowed only 103 points all season. Their offense gets stronger as the game progresses. No two ways players(with the exceptions of Quezada and Nygren on a P/T basis) keeps their legs fresh.
Don't know much about Trabuco Hills, but they are also a team that does not use two way players and they are HUGE all around. One observation, according to their stats, is that they do not score much in the 4th quarter.
This game will come down to the team that has momentum and fuel in the tank in the 4th quarter.
LA HABRA 42 THHS 7
ART FIG WILL NOT BE THERE ON THE SIDE LINES FILMING THE GAME TODAY SO I GIVE YOU THE SCORE OF THE GAME LH 35 TO 21 LH WIN LH FAN FOR LIFE THE BIG FIG
Way to go La Habra!!! Looking forward to the tailgate at Anaheim Stadium. Quezada - you make us so proud!!!!!
Incredible game last night! Again, La Habra slow started out of the gate, but eventually caught up and passed their opponent. Dangerous way to play, but for them effective. Way to go La Habra!
La Habra 27 TH 22................why? It's called DEFENSE!!!!!!!! DEFENSE, DETERMINATION, & DRIVE. Hey MUSTANG PRIDE now where's your WHITE ON RICE comment?? hmmmmmmmm? Right on Highlanders, awesome job. I had the most incredible fun Saturday night, very proud of the fans and community coming out to see this team. Stick to what you know and keep it simple!! See you in ANAHEIM!!!