SANTA CLARITA – In what was a hard-fought game between two quality teams, Valencia came out on top over Hart in the battle for the Santa Clarita Valley on Friday night.
Valencia (8-2, 6-0 Foothill League) and Hart (8-2, 5-1 Foothill League) came into Santa Clarita’s preeminent rivalry game with a league title on the line, and the Vikings scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to take control of the game and win their fourth straight Foothill League title, 45-26.
Valencia started slow in the first half and quickly fell behind 6-0 after a 47-yard touchdown pass from Camren Ketner to Matix Frithsmith just over four minutes into the game. But Valencia responded late in the first quarter when running back Nico Funez scored from 7 yards out to give Valencia a 7-6 lead with one minute left in the quarter.
From there, the two teams traded scores in the second quarter. Hart eventually took a 20-14 lead with 34 seconds left in the first half when Ketner found Silas Tucker down the right seam for a 20-yard touchdown, but Valencia responded when kicker Tyler Thornton made a 33-yard field goal to trim Hart’s advantage to 20-17 heading into halftime.
Valencia found its second gear when senior Anthony Vernon returned the second-half kickoff 60 yards for a touchdown to take a 24-20 lead.
“We knew that they were pop kicking and they didn’t wanna kick it deep, so we were trying to maneuver our guys around that hopefully one of ‘em would get to (Caysen) Badawi or Vernon, and that one got to Vernon,” Valencia head coach Larry Muir said about that kickoff. “Once it got to Vernon, we’re like, ‘Okay, let’s see what happens,’ and I think that was really important that it got in his hands. And once that kinda flipped, I thought that was an important moment to get it going.”
The Vikings went into their bag of tricks to keep their third-quarter roll going when Funez threw a 44-yard touchdown to Badawi on a halfback pass to extend their lead to 31-20.
“We installed it Wednesday night,” said Funez about the preparation for that pass. “I practiced it Wednesday night maybe two times and then Thursday in walkthrough practiced it. It was really fun, but honestly I was kinda nervous. I was like, ‘What if I throw a pick?’ so I just chucked a prayer, not gonna lie. But I was really happy to complete it to Caysen. Credit to Caysen, he ran a great route.”
Hart was never able to get back into the game from that point on, and Valencia salted the game away to earn the league title.
The victory was also big for Valencia from a legacy perspective as it gave the Vikings their first lead over Hart in the overall series history, 17-16-1, after Valencia had lost their first 10 games against the Hawks all-time.
“It’s a legacy. I’m the old guy that I remember in the first 10 years we were 0-10,” said Muir – who is in his 30th year on the Valencia coaching staff. “Those were rough times. So when you see the entirety of it, you see the alumni on the sideline and you see guys that were a part of our program for so long and they see where it’s at today, but they were part of that process,” he added. “It’s a long process. It’s a long grind to get to where you’re trying to get it at a level that you’re trying to maximise what you have. I think that’s a great part of this, to be with young people that do those kind of things and then see them with their kids. They’re great dads and great members of the community, so that’s the real joy part of it. That’s the legacy.”