interception

A look at the top performers from high school football games across the Southland this week.

RUSHING

• Vaughn Reinert, Torrance: Rushed for 223 yards and five touchdowns in defeat of West Torrance.

• Maleek Nolley, Cajon: Rushed for 266 yards and four touchdowns in win over Beaumont.

• Coy Collins, Villa Park: Rushed for 109 yards and three touchdowns in win over Tustin.

• Jacob Gallegos, San Dimas: Rushed for 204 yards and four touchdowns in defeat of Chino.

• Jason Brown, Muir: Rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns in win over Monrovia.

• Ceasar Reyes, Garfield: Rushed for 324 yards and seven touchdowns in win over South Gate.

• Cyrus Aviles, Fullerton: Rushed for 112 yards and two touchdowns in win over Portola.

• Edward Rivera, Compton: Rushed for 246 yards and five touchdowns in defeat of Long Beach Cabrillo.

• Matix Frithsmith, Hart: Rushed for 163 yards and three touchdowns in win over Castaic.

• Luke Zapko, Oak Park: Had four rushing touchdowns in win over Buena.

• Nico Funez, Valencia: Rushed for 215 yards and two touchdowns in win over Canyon Country Canyon.

• William Biddle, L.A. University: Rushed for 264 yards and scored five touchdowns in defeat of Fairfax.

PASSING

• Lincoln Jahn, Inglewood: Passed for four touchdowns in win over Redondo Union.

• Reagan Toki, Orange Lutheran: Completed 14 of 16 passes for 191 yards and one touchdown in win over JSerra

• Demarco Hernandez, Sierra Canyon: Passed for 201 yards and two touchdowns in defeat of Chaminade.

• Evan McCalister, Valencia: Passed for four touchdowns in win over Canyon Country Canyon.

RECEIVING

• Jalen Flowers, Palos Verdes: Caught three touchdown passes for 184 yards and had interception in win over Mira Costa.

• Ben Hanna, Villa Park: Caught six passes for 130 yards and passed for a touchdown in defeat of Tustin.

• Luke Frith, San Juan Hills: Caught eight passes for 128 yards and one touchdown in win over Yorba Linda.

DEFENSE

• Rayshawn Brandon, Santa Margarita: Returned and interception 51 yards for touchdown in win over St. John Bosco.

• Jayden Harris, Charter Oak: Returned and interception 80 yards for touchdown in win over Glendora.

• Eric Wright, South East: Had eight solo tackles in loss to Roosevelt.

• King Berry, Lawndale: Had interception and ran for a game-winning touchdown in win vs. South Torrance.

• Derrick Coleman Jr., Gardena Serra: Made two interceptions, including a pick six, in shutout of Loyola.

• King Rich Johnson, Orange Lutheran: Returned interception 20 yards for touchdown in win over JSerra.

• Noah Carter, Dana Hills: Had two sacks in defeat of Laguna Beach.

• Simote Tupou, St. John Bosco: Had consecutive sacks in loss to Santa Margarita.

• Bailey Hill, Hart: Had two sacks in defeat of Castaic.

• Zayne Reed, Agoura: Had three sacks in his first game of the season in win over Camarillo.

SPECIAL TEAMS

• Jaden Walk-Green, Corona Centennial: Made a 43-yard field goal and took a high snap on a field goal for a 16-yard touchdown in win over Norco.

• Noah Guillen, Bishop Amat: Made a school-record 52-yard field goal in defeat of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.

• Galileo Chen, Portola: Had a 97-yard kickoff return for touchdown in loss to Fullerton.

• Alejandro Carranza, King/Drew: Made two field goals in the first half during King/Drew’s win vs. Crenshaw.

UCLA senior starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava will miss the rest of this season with a knee injury, according to a person with knowledge of the injury not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The injury is a blow for the No. 12 Bruins, who are 5-0 during coach Bob Chesney’s first season and have a favorable path to a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Iamaleava sustained the injury at the end of the first half of UCLA’s win over Oregon.

The quarterback was running with the ball when he was spun around and was tackled. He grabbed his leg as he was hit in the head by Oregon’s Bear Alexander. Iamaleava briefly returned for one play and Chesney said during a halftime TV interview the quarterback was fine after getting hit in the quad.

Iamaleava, however, did not return with the team after halftime and eventually emerged from the locker room in the third quarter wearing street clothes.

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava is examined by medical staff while coach Bob Chesney watches Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

(Lydia Ely / Associated Press)

Before his exit, Iamaleava went 10 of 17 passing for 162 yards and two interceptions. Through five games, the quarterback tallied 982 passing yards, 144 rushing yards, five total touchdowns and four interceptions.

After Saturday’s win, Chesney said that he thought Iamaleava injured his thigh, but he noted the injury may have been more extensive and it would require a full medical evaluation.

Senior quarterback Ty Dieffenbach, who had been listed third on the depth chart behind Iamaleava and his younger brother Madden, ran the UCLA offense during the second half. He completed three passes for 43 yards and one touchdown, helping the Bruins earn a 17-15 win.

“When someone goes down, and someone’s gotta step up, you’re either exposed or you’re revealed,” Chesney said. “One of the two is going to happen when your number gets called, and for Ty to step up in that moment when Nico couldn’t go and to put himself in the spot where he was revealed for knowing the run game, knowing what to get us into, the touchdown pass I thought he threw.”

Madden Iamaleava appeared in two games this season, taking over the offense against Purdue when his older brother went down with a shoulder injury and against Maryland with UCLA up multiple scores.

Chesney turned to Dieffenbach, who started last season at Cal Poly, during one of the biggest moments of the season. Dieffenbach said after the win he didn’t know he would be asked to lead the offense if Nico Iamaleava was knocked out.

UCLA quarterback Ty Dieffenbach prepares to receive the ball during a win over Oregon Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

(Lydia Ely / Associated Press)

The decision to play Dieffenbach instead of Madden was based on the game script and the threat of Dieffenbach in the ground game, Chesney said.

“We are really on a week-to-week basis here, and this week we felt like we had to run a little bit more with the quarterback possibly, and that’s where I felt Ty had a really nice week and that put us in that spot,” Chesney said. “This is just one of those things that I’m sure if Madden would’ve went in there, he would have done a phenomenal job as well. But I thought Ty was the guy we decided on at this moment based on the previous week of practice.”

Chesney and Dieffebach acknowledged that the fight for the UCLA backup spot never ends.

“Every week is a battle between me and Madden for the two-spot, and I mean both of us were executing in practice,” Dieffenbach said. “… When I heard that I was [going to play, it was] just tunnel vision, just ready to go execute.”

Prior to helping earn UCLA’s first victory at Autzen Stadium since 2004, Dieffenbach spent the 2025 campaign at Cal Poly, where he started 11 games, throwing for 1,305 yards, nine touchdowns and nine interceptions, alongside 321 ground yards and four scores.

Dieffenbach’s one-year stint in San Luis Obispo was preceded by two years at Pittsburgh, where he did not see any game action. The signal caller’s transfer to UCLA marked a return to Southern California for the Agoura High product, who started his high school career as a wide receiver but finished his three varsity seasons with 4,153 passing yards and 48 touchdowns.

Matthew Stafford knows how to finish.

The Rams quarterback gave another masterclass last Sunday when he led the Rams to victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. It was Stafford’s 40th fourth-quarter comeback victory, leaving the 18th-year pro one shy of tying Ben Roethlisberger for third on the all-time list behind Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

But through four games, this has not otherwise been a prodigious start for the reigning NFL most valuable player and future Hall of Famer.

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Gary Klein breaks down what to watch for when the Rams face the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium on Monday night.

Stafford, 38, has passed for six touchdowns, with six interceptions, for a team that is 2-2 going into its game on Monday night against the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium.

Stafford is tied with the Chargers’ Justin Herbert for second-most interceptions in the NFL, trailing only the New England Patriots’ Drake Maye, who has seven.

And while Stafford’s numbers are more middling than fall-off-a-cliff poor, they rank among his slowest statistical starts.

Only twice in his career has Stafford had six passes intercepted in the first four games.

As a rookie in 2009, the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft had three passes intercepted in his first game, two in the second, none in the third and one in the fourth.

The same pattern repeated in 2022 during the Rams’ infamous Super Bowl hangover that ended with a 5-12 record, and Stafford on injured reserve.

Last season, in the Rams’ first four games, Stafford passed for eight touchdowns, with two interceptions, en route to a 3-1 start and what eventually became his run to a first MVP award.

So Stafford acknowledged that he personally has “room for improvement.”

“Some really bright moments, and some stuff I’m really proud of,” Stafford said, “and stuff that I definitely wish I could take back and help us be in a better position to win games. That comes with the position.”

The Rams’ — and Stafford’s — season began poorly after the team’s misguided decision to arrive in Australia the day before they played the San Francisco 49ers in the season opener. Stafford passed for only 155 yards, with an interception, in a 27-7 defeat.

Stafford rebounded by passing for four touchdowns, with an interception, in a 28-6 victory over the New York Giants at SoFi Stadium.

In the next game at Denver, Stafford completed 30 of 55 passes for 390 yards and two touchdowns. But Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga intercepted two passes, one he returned for a touchdown and another in the end zone in the final seconds of a 30-26 Rams defeat.

Against the Eagles, Stafford completed 32 of 51 passes for 317 yards, with two interceptions.

“He was at his best in the most important moments,” coach Sean McVay said. “That’s the competitive greatness — to find a way in spite of some different things that maybe didn’t go our way.”

Stafford was asked this week how he managed to stay calm, not feel rattled and still take shots at clutch plays after committing turnovers in a hostile environment.

His answer: Trust his preparation and live with the results.

“The world’s going to have an opinion on how I played every single play of every single day — that’s something I’m used to,” he said. “Are there areas I want to be better that [reporters] don’t even pick up and talk about? Absolutely. Are there the obvious ones? For sure.”

Last season, starting in Week 4, Stafford put together a personal-best streak of eight games without an interception. He passed for 25 touchdowns during that stretch. In 17 games, he passed for a career-best 46 touchdowns, with eight interceptions.

Stafford has endured throughout his career by never getting too high or too low. So that won’t change.

“I want to do everything I can to put our team in the best position to succeed,” he said. “I’ve done that sometimes this year and other times I have not.

“I want to make sure that I do that at a more consistent clip moving forward.”

Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys suffered an unexpected loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels in front of a home crowd on “Thursday Night Football.”

Some might describe the loss as “embarrassing” — in fact, one guy actually said that exact word in the Cowboys tunnel within earshot of Prescott as he walked to the locker room after the game.

Online video footage shows Prescott looking back at the man — who was there as a transportation service driver and not an employee of the Cowboys or AT&T Stadium — while still walking, then turning away. The man then said something else, possibly “you heard me,” which prompted the veteran quarterback to look back and say, “You say it once I look off, huh?” while still walking.

Prescott can then be seen speaking to a Cowboys security employee and gesturing in the direction of the other man. Footage shows the security employee going back down the tunnel, presumably in search of the heckler, but it is unclear what happened after that. The Cowboys declined to comment for this article.

Prescott was asked about the incident during his postgame news conference. At first, he simply acknowledged that the person wasn’t necessarily wrong in his assessment of the game.

“He’s free to speak his mind,” Prescott said.

The four-time Pro Bowl selection was then asked if he thought the comment was disrespectful.

“You know, when he said it I just happened to look at him, and at that point he looked away, didn’t look. And when I turned my head back, he said something else,” said Prescott, who completed 24 of 42 passes for 316 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

“So that’s the part that — just as a man or as a person, feel free to speak your mind. Just speak it. Don’t coward away from the reaction that you’re going to get. If you’re saying it’s embarrassing, say it’s embarrassing. If you’re saying it to me, then say it to me. Don’t go back on it. So that’s all that was, and hate it that it’s even being talked about, to be honest with you.”

The Cowboys led 10-7 at halftime, but Tampa Bay scored 17 points in the third quarter to take control of the game. Dallas pulled to within 24-16 late in the fourth quarter, but Prescott threw his second interception of the night deep in Buccaneers territory with 1:16 remaining to seal the game.

Owner Jerry Jones called the game’s result “extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointing.”

“Boy, I’ve been so disappointed before with losses, but this was disappointing,” Jones told reporters after the game. “And I’m disappointed because I see potential growth here. And we need to have good experiences on an individual basis as well as a team. And this was not a good experience out here.”

Prescott said he hesitates to use the word “embarrassing” to describe the loss because “I feel like I’m discrediting the NFL if I use that and particularly the Tampa Bay Bucs and a great Todd Bowles-coached and defensive-coached team.”

But, he added, “when a winless team comes into your home stadium on a Thursday night primetime game, yeah, we’re supposed to win that. So it sucks and it’s right up there close to ‘embarrassing,’ but I don’t know if I would say that.”

Santa Margarita High football coach Carson Palmer said special teams is the Eagles’ best phase of play. Not the elite defense, which had seven sacks and held Mater Dei to seven points on Friday night. Not the offense led by his son Fletch, who completed 65% of his passes for 155 yards.

No, he was adamant that it is the special teams unit. Two plays from junior free safety Jake Martin proved his coach right.

Twice Mater Dei attempted a field goal and twice the kick was missed. Martin juked out blockers late in the first half to deflect the first attempt, keeping the score at 7-7. Then, he helped preserve a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter as his pressure on the outside forced a second miss.

“We’re unbreakable,” Martin said after the Eagles’ 14-7 win. “We’re trying to go back-to-back. This is the team that’s going to do it.”

The chances of a second straight CIF Open Division state championship look good so far. Winning the Trinity League opener at Saddleback College kept the Eagles undefeated at 6-0. Mater Dei dropped to 4-2.

Of course, the Eagles’ offense and defense made plenty of important plays.

The game was sealed with an interception from freshman safety Jayden Jack, as Mater Dei freshman quarterback Paytyn Guess heaved the ball to the end zone with the Monarchs out of timeouts and out of options. That, coupled with a big sack from sophomore defensive lineman Kingston Jimmerson, killed the momentum on the visitors’ final drive.

It wasn’t a bad night for the young quarterback, though, as Guess staked his claim to the starting role for the Monarchs.

Mater Dei rotated three quarterbacks in nonleague play, and coach Raul Lara kept his cards tight to his chest before the game. The starter was Guess, who took more than 90% of the snaps on a night when he finished 16 for 22 for 163 yards with one interception and no touchdowns.

“He’s dynamic, but the problem with him is that he’s a freshman who just came into the program and is getting his feet wet,” Lara said before kickoff.

The impressive Santa Margarita front exposed those growing pains. Guess held on to the ball too long and took too many hits.

His playmaking ability did give Mater Dei a chance until the final moments, as he scrambled around and found senior wide receiver Gavin Honore down the sideline. The inconsistency on offense, though, has been a source of frustration for Lara.

“It all comes down to execution. We have to execute,” he said. “When we have the opportunity to make a play, we need to make that play and take advantage of it.”

Mater Dei’s defensive line had a solid game, holding Santa Margarita star sophomore running back Adrian Petero to 41 yards on 11 carries, although he scored his team’s first touchdown.

It was Santa Margarita’s junior quarterback who had the decisive play as Palmer found junior wide receiver Grant Van Raaphorst in the back of the end zone for a six-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

Mater Dei sophomore running back Asir Nembhard had the only touchdown for his team, which gave the Monarchs their only lead of the night in the first quarter.

Before the game, Palmer said tat he tells his players to never take an opponent too lightly nor build it up too much. The former NFL quarterback played in a division with the prime Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, so he knows a thing or two about a competitive schedule like the Trinity League offers.

“We’ve got a target on our back after last year, and we know that,” Palmer said. “We know that we are highlighted on other teams’ schedules.”

He also emphasized that his team could improve in every aspect of the game. That is certainly a scary prospect for foes facing the No. 1 team in the state.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Bob Chesney’s friend nicknamed “Juice” led the effort to bus in supporters from the first-year UCLA coach’s hometown of Kulpmont, Pa., to watch the Bruins put the squeeze on Maryland in a 54-3 victory on Saturday.

Thomas Letcavage, the man known as “Juice,” brought four buses filled with 160 Chesney fans to watch their friend cook the Terrapins.

With the victory, Chesney became the second UCLA head coach to win his first four games at the helm, matching the start by College Football Hall of Fame inductee Red Sanders in 1949. But Chesney accomplished something Sanders couldn’t: beating Maryland on the road. Saturday marked UCLA’s first game here since the No. 1 Bruins fell to the fifth-ranked Terrapins in September 1955.

It was clear by halftime that another Terrapins upset wasn’t likely as the hot seat for Maryland coach Mike Locksley warmed as light rain fell consistently at SECU Stadium. After opening the season 2-0, the Terrapins’ home losses to Virginia Tech and UCLA will no doubt lead to more calls for the dismissal of Locksley, who is coming off consecutive 4-8 seasons and has an overall record of 39-51.

After failing to score on their first three possessions that included their first lost fumble of the season, the Bruins’ offense reeled off touchdowns on their next three possessions. The first was set up by UCLA defensive back Mason Rivera’s interception late in the first quarter.

Three plays after Maryland’s first turnover of the season, Wayne Knight opened the scoring with a 45-yard touchdown run. Anthony Woods and Jaivian Thomas followed with short touchdown runs as the Bruins scored 20 unanswered points to open the game. Troy Leigber added a 63-yard rushing touchdown with four minutes left in regulation.

Maryland quarterback Malik Washington tossed three more interceptions in the second half, the first two returned for touchdowns as Ta’Shawn James and Scooter Jackson scampered in from 39 and 65 yards, respectively.

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava put a scare into the Bruins’ cheering section as he was slow to get up after he was hit delivering a pass to Aidan Mizellfor an 83-yard touchdown.

Iamaleava didn’t appear to be injured on the play, although with a huge lead, backup Madden Iamaleava took over the offense and helped the Bruins coast to the victory.

The rout marked the first time the Bruins have scored 50 during back-to-back games since 1993.