UPLAND — With La Habra and Upland tied in the fourth quarter and the offenses struggling with penalties, it was going to take something special to decide the game.

On fourth-and-8, a Sean York-to-Reon Dean screen pass set up the winning touchdown and Upland defeated La Habra 21-14 in a nonleague season opener Thursday night.

With the score tied 14-14 and Upland facing a fourth down at the La Habra 35, Dean took the screen pass, and many in attendance thought he scored by the visitor’s sideline. But after a conference by officials, the ball was placed on the 1.

“I thought he might’ve lost the ball and it was going to be a touchback,” Upland coach Darryl Thomas said. “He’s a guy who played running back as a sophomore, then last year was his first year at receiver.”

After one play was stopped short of the goal line, Teyondre Coleman’s plunge gave Upland the lead with 55.1 seconds left, capping a 63-yard drive that took 4:59 off the clock.

Any chance of a La Habra comeback ended on the kickoff when a short kickoff was recovered by Upland.

“That wasn’t designed,” Thomas said. “He (the kicker) mishit it.”

Upland was in control of the game early, before the game’s only turnover brought La Habra back into it.

The teams combined for just one first down in the first quarter, but Upland got on the board with help from La Habra. A failed La Habra fake punt gave Upland the ball at the La Habra 22.

“I told him (the punter) to go for it if he had an opening, but I should’ve told him not in that position,” La Habra coach Frank Mazzotta said. “That’s on me.”

La Habra nearly overcame the fake punt. But on fourth-and-14, York completed a 26-yard touchdown pass to Cole Renko for a 7-0 lead 10:33 before halftime.

Unlike the one in the game’s final minute Upland’s first kickoff that was recovered was by design giving the ball on the La Habra 39. A 22-yard pass from York to Dean set up York’s two-yard touchdown run and a 14-0 lead with 7:23 before half.

It seemed that would be the halftime score when Upland took over at its own 47 after a La Habra punt with 25.7 seconds left.

But Matthew Gil intercepted York and returned it to the Upland 32. On the next play, Justin Gil threw a touchdown pass to Jacob Apodaca, bringing La Habra within 14-7 at halftime.

“He made a great play,” Mazzotta said of Matthew Gil. “He is so little (listed at 5-foot-8, 165 pounds) you lose track of him.”

Mazzotta wasn’t surprised Upland was aggressive in the final 30 seconds of the first half.

“It’s the first game of the year,” he said. “You might as well go for it.”

Suddenly, La Habra had life and scored again on its first possession of the third quarter. A 57-yard drive was capped by a one-yard run by Marcus Works tying the score 14-14 with 3:45 left in the third.

But La Habra didn’t get a first down in its next two possessions before Upland scored the winning touchdown.

Both teams have plenty to improve on going forward. Upland had 126 yards in penalties while La Habra had 63.“I told them, ‘good teams don’t beat themselves,’” Thomas said. “We have to get better with the penalties.”

Said Mazzotta: “The positive is that we executed so poorly, but we were still in the game against a good team.”

York, a senior, completed 12 of 21 passes for 142 yards. Junior Noah Sandoval also saw playing time at quarterback, but Thomas elected to stick with York when he got into a good rhythm throwing the ball in the second quarter.

Justin Gil completed 10 of 22 passes for 104 yards for La Habra.