Valencia football cruises in rout of Golden Valley

CANYON COUNTRY — We all watched Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal dominate in the early 2000s when both were on the Los Angeles Lakers. Every team needs to rely on a prolific duo from time to time.

For Valencia Vikings football, it’s been quarterback Brady Bretthauer and senior running back Brian Bonner.

Since entering Foothill League play, the Valencia offense has averaged 48 points per game. Bretthauer and Bonner have fueled every offensive explosion – and that trend didn’t change on Thursday night.

In the Vikings’ (7-1, 4-0) 35-7 routing of the Golden Valley Grizzlies (3-5, 2-2), Bretthauer finished with 161 total yards, scoring two touchdowns and Bonner finished with 150 yards on 14 carries.

“Week in and week out, those are two guys that we’re lucky to have, and they’re special,” Valencia head coach Larry Muir said postgame.

The Vikings’ rushing attack got off to a fast start, totaling 105 yards in the first quarter, including a five-play, 74-yard drive entirely on the ground. The drive finished with an eight-yard rushing touchdown by senior wideout Elias Holloway.

Bretthauer threw seven times, with one going for 40 yards. The Vikings finished with over 200 rushing yards for the third time in four games of league play.

“You gotta execute,” Muir said. “That’s your fight every week in and week out, is just executing what you do, and at the end of the day, you’re just doing the things that you believe in and the things that you’ve been working on, and it’s a constant pressure to try to execute the best level that you possibly can. And our guys came out and executed really well, especially in the run game.”

The ground game isn’t the only dominant part of this Vikings team. While the offense is clicking, the defensive unit has only allowed six ppg in league play.

One of a 16-play drive where Valencia’s defense gave up multiple first downs and even a fourth down conversion, but didn’t allow a point. The second, the unit gave up a 98-yard run, putting the ball on the two-yard line, but still, the defense made a goalline stand.

“At the end of the day, you’re trying to keep people out of the end zone,” Muir said. That’s your whole theory. But very frustrating that they kept getting first downs, or that we did give up the big run. Now, once our backs are against the wall, great job by them in terms of bearing down and sticking it out.”

With a 169-point differential in league play, Muir’s message to the team after the game emphasized consistency and hunger — two traits every coach wants, but few teams maintain. It’s a mindset that’s clearly rubbed off on his quarterback.

“Every week there’s something that we need to fix,” Bretthauer said. “He doesn’t let us get complacent, which I think is the biggest thing, even if we break a play for 70 yards, he finds something that went wrong within it and helps us to correct those little mistakes so that we’re just on firing on all cylinders all the time.”