BREA — Justin Villaseñor, who graduated from La Mirada High in 2001, has been looking forward to facing his alma mater since taking over as the head coach at Brea Olinda in 2024.
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“I’ve been wanting to schedule this game for a while,” Villaseñor said. “I grew up there, I learned football there. I tried to bring that work ethic (from La Mirada), and just the way you play football and bring it here and we’ll do it.”
Dual-threat quarterback Gavyn Nicholson paced the host Wildcats to a 49-28 nonleague victory over No. 11 La Mirada on Friday night, completing seven of his eight passes for 148 yards and a touchdown, and rushing for 135 yards and three TDs on 15 carries.
“He’s our guy that comes up in those (big) plays” Villaseñor said of the senior, who has four touchdown passes and nine touchdown runs after four games. “Through the air or on the ground, and we know that and our guys have his back.”
This was the first meeting between the schools.
Brea Olinda (3-1) stormed to a 14-0 lead less than five minutes into the first quarter after a 55-yard interception return by Cole Pfiffer halted the Matadores’ first drive of the game.
Just 2:33 into the game, Nicholson capped a six-play march with a 1-yard touchdown run. On the prior play, he connected with Evan Rivas Melendez on a 43-yard pass.
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A couple of key plays led to La Mirada’s first score of the night. A running into the punter penalty kept their second drive of the game alive. On the ensuing play, a 39-yard pass from Isaac Cuevas to Jaylen Scott moved the ball to the Brea Olinda 20-yard line. La Mirada (3-1) cut the deficit to 14-7 on a 5-yard pass from Cuevas to Joshia Fregoso with 4:01 left in the first quarter, concluding an 11-play, 80-yard drive.
Cuevas finished 14-of-22 passing with an interception.
Nick Davis scored twice in the second quarter, on runs of 1 and 9 yards, respectively. Before his first touchdown, he converted on third down with a 27-yard rush to advance the ball to the La Mirada 25.
He converted on third down again with a 5-yard carry before his second touchdown (his fourth of the season).
Fregoso had a pair of touchdown runs in the third quarter (1 and 66 yards) to cut the Matadores’ deficit to 35-28.
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He finished the game with 156 yards on 23 carries for La Mirada.
La Mirada will host Cerritos in its Gateway League opener next Friday at 7 p.m.
Brea Olinda will visit Victor Valley next Friday, also at 7 p.m.