La Habra’s football team rallied late but fell to undefeated Bakersfield Christian, 24-21, in the CIF Southern California Division 2-AA Regional championship Friday at Bakersfield Christian High.

Junior quarterback DJ Mitchell ran for a touchdown for La Habra to cut Bakersfield Christian’s lead to 24-21 with 1:08 remaining in the game.

La Habra (11-4) had all three of its timeouts and attempted an onside kick. A La Habra player recovered the ball but the ball did not travel 10 yards before the recovery, which resulted in Bakersfield Christian taking possession.

Bakersfield Christian (13-0) converted a third down to effectively end the game with La Habra having just one timeout remaining.

La Habra beat San Jacinto 27-13 last week to win the CIF-SS Division 4 championship. It was the eighth CIF championship for coach Frank Mazzotta.

Bakersfield Christian defeated Liberty 38-16 on Nov. 21 to win the Central Section Division 1A championship. The Eagles reached the regional finals last season but fell to Palos Verdes 28-10.

La Habra opened the game with an 83-yard scoring drive that took over six minutes. Sonny Rodriguez ran for a 6-yard touchdown on an end-around to give the Highlanders a 7-0 lead.

Bakersfield Christian scored 21 unanswered points after that and kept La Habra off the scoreboard for 28 minutes of game time.

Arnez Lee ran for two touchdowns and Lincoln Adame threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Jason Gutierrez to give the Eagles a 21-7 lead early in the third quarter.

Late in the third quarter, Santi Bautista Cuesta blocked a field goal for La Habra and Kevika Mata’utia-Martinez returned the ball to Bakersfield Christian’s 33.

Mitchell converted a fourth down with a 13-yard run and subsequently ran for a 2-yard touchdown to cut Bakersfield Christian’s lead to 21-14 with four seconds left in the third quarter.

La Habra had an opportunity to tie the game earlier in the fourth quarter, but Robert Hernandez of Bakersfield Christian intercepted a La Habra pass in the end zone.

Bakersfield Christian’s defense had two interceptions.