Valencia could smell its first win of the season in Thursday night’s battle with the Murrieta Mesa Rams.
The winless teams duked it out for three quarters, and the Vikings led for a majority of the game before the Rams took over late and crunched out a 38-33 win.
Murrieta’s run game was a force throughout the game as a pair of Rams running backs finished with over 140 yards on the ground. Senior back Artyon Celestine led all players with 170 and a pair of touchdowns while sophomore Royal Randolph also added 141 rushing yards and one score for Murrieta Mesa.
Valencia bounced back well on both sides of the ball after a lackluster outing against Santa Barbara. Vikings quarterback Brady Bretthauer racked up over 270 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns in the road loss. Valencia running back Brian Bonner had 17 touches, six of which were receptions, and finished with 141 yards.
Only those two Vikings had scored so far this season until Thursday when Bretthauer connected with receiver Nick Seymour for a TD. Seymour finished with 135 receiving yards and was one of three Viking receivers with five or more catches. Logan Thompson also added 44 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Valencia sophomore Ryan Galvan finished his first varsity game with two sacks while Symeon Wilkins also brought down Murrieta quarterback Coleman Jones.
The Vikings now slip to 0-3 for the first time in over 20 years.
Valencia has one more shot at a win before heading into league play. The Vikings will play host to the Rancho Cucamonga Cougars on Friday at 7 p.m.
