La Habra Overcomes Turnovers, Fullerton to Force 21-21 Tie

FULLERTON — After all the penalties and all the turnovers and 48 minutes of play Friday, Fullerton and La Habra had played to a 21-21 tie at Fullerton High.

Justin Bruce passed for 145 yards and two touchdowns for Fullerton (3-2-1, 0-0-1) and Josh Herrera rushed for 73 yards and scored two touchdowns for La Habra (2-3-1, 0-0-1).

Both teams were plagued by turnovers, which resulted in 14 points for Fullerton and seven for La Habra.

On La Habra’s opening drive, Herrera fumbled when Chad Staffeiri knocked the ball into the hands of teammate Jonathan Pate, who returned it 61 yards for a touchdown.

Three plays later, the Indians recovered Jesse Giovannetti’s fumble on the La Habra 43-yard line and scored seven plays later on Bruce’s 17-yard pass to Aaron Easton to make it 14-0.

La Habra cut its deficit to 14-7 on a 20-yard pass from Robert Morales to Herrera, but Fullerton responded with a 16-play, 76-yard, nearly nine-minute drive that was capped by Bruce’s second touchdown pass to Easton.

La Habra moved to within seven on Giovannetti’s two-yard run midway through the third quarter.

The Highlanders made it 21-21 on a 12-yard scoring run by Herrera that followed Dale Sutton’s interception of a Bruce pass.