Loyola HS of Los Angeles pulled off something of an upset during the week, beating Los Alamitos 25-21 in SoCal league play.
Loyola has been working toward this with a series of good results including wins over Long Beach Poly and San Marcos. But this result was probably not expected. Using their effective halfback combination Loyola and some good support running Loyola was able to get an early 7-0 lead.
Loyola continued putting deep kicks into Los Alamitos’s half and playing disciplined defense, getting quickly up into the faces of Los Al runners and not giving them time to get up a head of steam.
It was that approach which led to a turnover and try for Loyola to make it 12-0, a scoreline which held until halftime.
Los Alamitos made a few adjustments and they improved their tempo and rhythm, getting a try in the middle of the second half to make it 12-7. Loyola continued to follow their plan to put Los Al under pressure in their half, and that led to a penalty goal from center Ronan O'Rourke.
Loyola was frustrating Los Alamitos with kicks deep into their half, and again O'Rourke punished them with a penalty to make it 18-7. The kicking was working so they went back to to the well and this time when the kick was mishandled leading to a Loyola scrum.
From there Los Al was penalized at the engagement and O'Rourke once again put the kick over. Los Al finally was able to work some continuity and run their pattern a little bit better.
After a Loyola penalty, Los Al tapped and powered over. With the conversion it was now 21-14 for Loyola.
But O'Rourke kept the scoreboard ticking over and another nicely- taken penalty with less than two minutes to play made it a two-score game again at 24-14.
Upon receipt of the ensuing restart, Los Alamitos launched into a fast and aggressive pace in their attack and quickly scored to make it, with the conversion, 24-21. There was still time left but Loyola won the restart, consolidated possession, and kicked to touch to end the game.
It was an impressive step forward for a Loyola team in its second season.
