SANTA ANA — The Brea Olinda football team continued its pursuit of a perfect regular season with a 30-18 victory over Segerstrom on Friday night.
The Wildcats improved to 9-0 overall and 4-0 in the Kappa League with one game left in the regular season. With the win Friday, they clinched at least a share of the league championship, their first since 2021 and first in a full season since 2015.
Brea Olinda faces Esperanza in their regular-season finale. Esperanza is tied for second place with the Jaguars (6-3, 3-1).
Senior quarterback Cullen Doyle led the Wildcats with 245 passing yards, two touchdowns and a rushing TD. On his 3-yard TD run, Doyle took a big hit near the goal line before extending the ball to the pylon.
Brea Olinda coach Justin Villasenor has been with the program since 2008 and is accomplishing some important goals in his first season as head coach.
“They’ve really bought in this year with me as a new coach,” Villasenor said, “set that discipline and accountability over the offseason and they trusted me, which I’m grateful for. All their hard work has paid off and I couldn’t be more proud.”
Doyle threw a couple of first-half touchdown passes, one to Jake Brooks for 31 yards and the other to Isaak Rivas-Melendez for 54 yards.
The Wildcats offense was getting some clean looks downfield and Doyle easily could’ve thrown for more.
“We’re fast,” Villasenor said. “We put our guys in the right spot and we can beat anyone out on the edge. We missed a few but our message was that it’s going to come again, so be ready.”
Villasenor had nothing but praise for Doyle’s impact on the program.
“He’s everything you want in a Brea football player,” Villasenor said. “When it comes to playing (the game), he’s smart, he gets the job done and he’s the leader. Everyone can look to him because he never shakes, he never rattles. I’m proud to have him and I’m lucky to have him, I love that kid.”
Segerstrom relied on its ground game to stay in the game with the absence of quarterback Jesse Lopez. The Jaguars were able take a brief lead in the third quarter.
Noah Tagaloa rushed for a career-high 223 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown for the Jaguars.
Tagaloa scored on a 53-yard run in the second quarter and also broke free for a 65-yard run to set up Andrew Diaz’s 3-yard score that made the score 18-14 Segerstrom with 9:16 left in the third.
“He told me before the game that this game was special to him because he’s playing against his cousin (Dalton Tagaloa) , my nephew,” said Segerstrom coach Joseph Tagaloa. “We had the whole family out here, so he wanted to come out here and show all the hard work that he’s put in over the last four years, I’m proud of him, I thought he played his heart out,”
The Wildcats defense was able to keep the Jaguars off the scoreboard from that point on. Meanwhile, their running game started to click behind Nathan Aceves.
Aceves gave Brea the lead with a 15-yard run and then Colby Thuman hit a 28-yard field goal on their next drive to make it 24-18.
Aceves finished with 104 rushing yards.
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