Valencia High School’s offense showed no mercy in its 43-13 victory over Quartz Hill, gaining an early lead in the first half and never letting go.
Quarterback Trey Erickson and wide receiver Brandon Boateng seemed locked in with one another, with Boateng passing to Erickson seven times, twice for touchdowns, before the second string was brought it.
“Me and Trey, we have a great chemistry. We’ve been playing together since freshman year, and we’re going to do great things this season,” said Boateng.
Boateng said offense was the key thing the team wanted to work on after last week’s loss to Bishop Amat.
“You know, offense. Last week, we didn’t score a touchdown. So that was really a goal this week, to really score the first touchdown,” said Boateng. “And we got into a rhythm, like in the second quarter, the first quarter was a little slow. We started off slow, but we really picked it up.”
After scoring a field goal on their first drive, the Vikings’ defense held back the Royals and the offense was able to score on its next drive in the second quarter, following four plays converted into first downs, which included a 39-yard pass from Erickson to Boateng. Senior Daniel Hernandez carried the ball 16 yards into the end zone for Valencia’s first TD.
Quartz Hill was able to answer when they got the ball back, scoring on a 61-yard cut-back play by running back Ashton Dupleasis. However, they were not able to convert the extra point, leaving the score at 10-6. Poor kicking would plague the Royals and the Vikings would later take advantage of it.
Once the Vikings got the ball back, their relentless offense returned, never needing a third down on the whole drive. After taking advantage of a pass interference call on second and eight at the Royals’ 40-yard line, Erickson once again found an open Boateng on a screen, who drove the ball 25 yards for another touchdown.
For the second time, the Vikings were able to take advantage of a penalty — this time a roughing the kicker call — and executed a two point conversion on the redemption.
The Vikings once again stopped the Royals in their tracks in four plays and took advantage of the Royals’ kicker dropping the snap on the punt by tackling him at the Royals’ own 27-yard line.
The Vikings then scored after just three plays, with Erickson driving the ball in on a scramble.
The vast majority of plays gave Erickson the opportunity to throw the ball, and it paid off. Valencia would end up with more than 200 passing yards and zero interceptions.
“It feels good to have trust [from] our coaching. We have a bond together. Feels good that he trusts me to do all the things I do,” said Erickson.
Later in the quarter, Erickson would show off his scrambling skills once again after dropping a snap, recovering and then running the ball for 28 yards pushing the Vikings to the Royals’ 10-yard line. Erickson found Boateng again for a touchdown.
By halftime, the score was 39-6 and both the Vikings and Royals’ would only score once more in the second half.
Although offense was the star of the game, Vikings head coach Larry Muir said having a balanced team was what led to success on the field on Friday.
“We love to be balanced. That’s our thing, we want to be honest. You gotta establish the room, you got to establish the physical play, but at the same time we have some really terrific players on the outside,” said Muir. “Brandon Boateng is a terrific player and Dylan Kelly and Ralph Testa… So I think you got to be balanced. I don’t think that when you play quality teams, you can’t be just, ‘Oh, we’re gonna run the ball but we can’t throw,’ or vice versa. You got to be able to do both and you gotta be taught to give yourself the best chance you can and I thought our kids did that.”
The Vikings ended up winning the game 46-13 and will play Notre Dame High School next week.
