Keith Birmingham’s Los Altos-West Covina photo gallery

Los Altos rocks the champs

By Fred J. Robledo
For lack of better words, it was unbelievable.
Los Altos pulled off the upset of the season, shocking back-to-back CIF-Southern Section champion West Covina 17-14 a week after getting embarrassed in a 40-point loss to Diamond Bar.

“It was awesome, I don’t know what to say, amazing,” Conquerors coach Dale Ziola said. “We played our guts out tonight. West Covina’s a great team, but we wanted it bad and our guys played their hearts out.” TO CONTINUE READING CLICK THREAD

Bishop Amat remains unbeaten: – Bishop Amat High School put the finishing touches on a fantastic nonleague schedule with a workmanlike 31-7 win over visiting Culver City on Friday night. The Lancers improved to 5-0-1 and will have next week off to prepare for Serra League play, where the action begins with a road game against defending league champion Alemany.

Charter Oak impressive again: Senior Aaren Vaughns ran for 163 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries as Charter Oak cruised to a 52-7 win over Los Osos in nonleague play Friday, making for an unhappy homecoming for the Grizzlies.

Goss leads way for South Hills: South Hills continued its winning ways as it defeated Glendora 28-17 in a nonleague game Friday at Citrus College. The Huskies were led by a strong passing attack featuring junior Adam Goss, who was 12 of 19 for 164 yards, including touchdowns of 25 and 21 yards to Carlos Delgado and Steven Mendoza, respectively.

Damien routed on the road: Los Alamitos (4-1) sent Damien (3-2) into Sierra League play on a sour note by defeating the Spartans 42-7 on Friday at Veterans Stadium.

Friday’s results
Los Altos 17, West Covina 14
Bishop Amat 31, Culver City 7
Los Alamitos 42, Damien 7
Charter Oak 52, Los Osos 7
South Hills 28, Glendora 17
Bonita 42, Walnut 7
San Dimas 47, Baldwin Park 7
San Marino 31, South El Monte 21
Kaiser 14, Ayala 7
Temple City 20, Rosemead 10
La Puente 56, Ganesha 6
El Monte 46, Bell Gardens 41
Bassett 41, Workman 14
Arroyo 42, La Canada 7
Northview 20, Pomona 10

For quarter updates of tonight’s games, click link

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Los Altos led 14-7 and was was lining up a 27-yard field goal to provide the finishing touches with 3:21 left when Aaron Franklin blocked Henry’s punt.

Muleck Henderson picked it up and ran 83 yards for a touchdown to tie the score, 14-14.
Dazed but not done, the Conquerors came right back.

Sophomore quarterback Lorenzo Silva, who couldn’t do anything right in his first varsity start in last week’s loss, finished with 91 yards passing and came up with the play of the game on the Conquerors’ game-winning dive.

Facing fourth-and-five on the Bulldogs’ 41 with 1:45 left, the Conquerors went for it, leaving the game in Silva’s hands.

He ran around the backfield forever and with defenders pulling his shirt, delivered an 18-yard strike to Estuardo Marcos for a first down at the 23.

Silva scrambled again for a 12-yard run, and that eventually set up Henry’s game-winning field.

Los Altos improved to 4-2 and 1-1 in the Hacienda while the Bulldogs’ 13-game Hacienda league win streak was snapped to fall to 2-4 and 1-1.

“A sophomore baby, a sophomore,” Ziola said of Silva. “He did a phenomenal job. He was eyes down field and played with guts. They all did.”

Los Altos’ main workhorse was Marcos. He kept the chains moving all night, finishing with 158 yards and two touchdowns.

“Marcos was banged up and came through in the clutch,” Ziola said. “He had a monster game.”

Los Altos’ defense was equally impressive, giving up two fluke touchdowns on special-team plays.

West Covina’s Aaron Salgado scored on a fake punt, going 55-yards to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 first-half lead.

It stayed that way until late in the third quarter when Silva’s 19-yard pass to Trevor Virnala set-up Marcos’ one-yard TD to tie the score, 7-7 with 1:49 left in the third. After the Conquerors blocked a 41-yard Bulldogs field goal attempt, Marcos made them pay, later scoring on a 50-yard run to go up 14-7 with 6:55 remaining.

West Covina lost on a night it returned senior quarterback Jonathan Najera and junior running back Josh Best.

Both players sat out the first quarter. Najera didn’t have much of an impact, completing just three passes for 12 yards.

Best finished with 90 yards on 13 carries, but he couldn’t bust a big one.

The game was delayed 30 minutes after Los Altos’ Matt Hayashi was injured on the opening kick-off. Hayashi was taken to a nearby hospital with a badly injured knee.