Laguna Hills Puts Heart Into Its ‘Championship’ Game

They jumped, shouted, celebrated and stormed the field as though they had just won the Pacific Coast League title.

In their minds, they had.

In reality, they hadn’t.

Laguna Hills’ 12-10 victory Thursday over Aliso Niguel came one day after the Hawks were told one of their starters was an ineligible player and they had to forfeit all five victories this season.

The defending Division VIII champions probably forfeited their playoff chances, too.

That made Thursday’s would-be showdown against rival Aliso Niguel even more important--and personal.

“Everyone knows we’re the league champs,” said Jeff Fischer, one of three returning starters. “The standings can say whatever they want, but everyone knows we’re the league champs, and they can’t take that away from us.”

Ryan Johnson, another senior, rushed 16 times for 128 yards and two touchdowns, of 72 and two yards.

“[Wednesday] was probably the worst day of my life,” he said. “We went from playing for a league title to 0-8 and no playoffs. It ripped out everything we had.”

Not everything. Laguna Hills (1-8, 1-3) still had enough to beat the Wolverines (4-5, 3-1), who are likely to go into the playoffs as league co-champion, at worst. Aliso Niguel plays Costa Mesa next week.

Laguna Hills, averaging 17.3 points more than opponents in its four on-field league victories, ends its season against Estancia (1-7, 0-3). Without the forfeits, Laguna Hills would be 6-3, 4-0.

“We won’t get a [championship] patch or a little piece of paper,” Johnson said, “but what we have is in our hearts.”

After a point-after attempt failed, a two-point conversion also went awry, leaving Laguna Hills with a 12-7 lead going into the fourth quarter. Aliso Niguel’s Ryan Roy kicked a 41-yard field goal with 8 minutes 54 seconds left to cut the lead to 12-10, but Blake Curci recovered a Wolverine fumble with 6:25 to go, and Michael Thai and Nema Nowzari had key midfield sacks in the final minute.

The player in question was a resident in the Laguna Hills attendance area for years, but attended Capistrano Valley his first semester as a freshman on a sibling transfer. When he enrolled at Laguna Hills the second semester, school officials failed to file paperwork with the section office seeking a hardship waiver that would have made him eligible.

The mistake was discovered Tuesday after he was involved in an on-campus traffic accident. The school reported itself to the Southern Section office.