VALENCIA – “As long as there’s air in your lungs, you’re always in the fight.”
Saugus football coach Jason Bornn relayed that message to his team at halftime of their game against Golden Valley on Friday, and Saugus responded by rallying for a 32-29 victory to clinch a playoff berth.
Saugus trailed 22-17 at the break. The opening 24 minutes had been marred by sloppy play and two Centurion touchdowns that were taken off the scoreboard due to holding penalties.
Saugus and Golden Valley faced off in a high-stakes matchup where the winner would clinch third place in the Foothill League and earn the league’s final playoff spot, while the loser would have to anxiously wait through Sunday’s CIF-SS playoff pairings to see if their its would continue.
Golden Valley got the scoring started when running back Aaron McCormick ended an opening drive that featured only running plays with a 12-yard race to the end zone. The Grizzlies tacked on a 2-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead at the 7:50 mark of the first quarter.
Saugus quickly responded with a 70-yard touchdown drive of its own when senior quarterback Jake Nuttall found Tre Lewis for a 7-yard score to cut their deficit to 8-7 at the 5:07 mark of the quarter.
Golden Valley converted a fourth-and-3 at the beginning of the second quarter when Jayce Johnson completed a 9-yard pass before McCormick hit paydirt for his second touchdown of the contest — this one coming from 41 yards out to extend the lead to 15-7 – and that’s when madness began.
Saugus saw two would-be touchdowns negated by holding penalties in the quarter and ultimately cut the deficit to just 15-10 by the 4:32 mark in the second frame after a pair of field goal attempts — one was made and the other sailed wide right from 40 yards out.
Golden Valley took advantage of Saugus’ miscues when Johnson hit a wide-open Ace Frias up the left seam for a 75-yard touchdown with 2:43 left in the half.
Saugus answered late in the half when receiver Matt Long had a 1-yard rushing touchdown as the wildcat quarterback.
“Wildcat is something that we take pride in,” Long said. “We practice that a lot, so we know what we’re doing when they call it and when we get inside that 5 (yard-line) or whenever they wanna call it, we’re ready to make a play.”
Golden Valley extended its lead to 29-17 with 2:48 remaining in the third when McCormick ran for a 20-yard touchdown following Golden Valley forcing a turnover on a strip sack of Nuttall. It looked as if the Grizzlies had all of the momentum.
But Saugus’ defense forced a three-and-out early in the fourth quarter and the offense responed with a touchdown drive that went for 61 yards in just over two and a half minutes to cut the deficit to 29-24 with 8:33 left.
Long scored the touchdown and Saugus was back in the game.
The Centurions held Golden Valley again and Saugus had the ball at its own 28-yard line with 5:37 left.
After moving down the field, Saugus faced a fourth-and-3 at Golden Valley’s 24, and the Centurions went back into their bag of tricks when it mattered the most.
The Centurions executed a hook and ladder play down the right sideline and flummoxed a disciplined Golden Valley defense to give themselves a first-and-goal at the 6.
From there, Long scored his third touchdown out of the Wildcat from 3 yards out to give Saugus its first lead of the game at 32-29 with 1:29 left.
Golden Valley tried to pull off some drama of its own, and Johnson heaved a ball deep that would’ve put the Grizzlies in range to at least tie the game late.
But Long met the moment for the fourth time on the night as he intercepted Johnson’s pass at Saugus’ 2-yard line to clinch both the game and a playoff spot for a program that came off a 2-8 season last year.
With Long’s heroics proving crucial throughout, Saugus completed a turnaround in 2025, finishing 7-3 and heading into the postseason.
“I think the turnaround is the chemistry we have with the players and we know we have each other’s backs no matter what,” Long said postgame. “Looking forward to playoffs a lot because we’ve been working really hard for this season, and the seniors, I know we want it bad because we’ve had a bad couple seasons in the past, so we want it real bad.”