Valencia Vikings football didn’t miss a beat in Friday night’s battle with the Hart Hawks.
The Vikings ran through, threw over and defensively dominated the Hawks in the 44-14 win, snapping Hart’s seven-game win streak.
Valencia (4-4, 4-0) was led by quarterback Brady Bretthauer, who totaled four touchdowns, with over 250 offensive yards.
“We knew coming into it that they were a good team, and we just thought the whole week we were better,” Bretthauer said. “We knew we couldn’t take them lightly and judging by the end of the game, we didn’t. We played dominant on both sides of the ball.”
Bretthauer’s leading target Nick Seymour finished the night with six catches for 133 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Seymour opened up the scoring with a 69-yard bomb from Bretthauer for six, and later reeled in a 16-yard touchdown on fourth and long to go up 37-7.
“On fourth down, he’s the go-to guy down,” Bretthauer said. “Even if there’s nothing else we can do, if we’re not running the ball well, throw it to Nick Seymour. He’ll be open.”
Valencia running back Brian Bonner showed Hart (7-2, 4-1) he can do it all with a pair of touchdowns of 85 or more yards. The Valencia junior blew through special teams coverage in the first quarter for a long touchdown return to break the tie and go up 14-7.
A few drives later, Vikings defensive back Ronald Bruner snagged the only turnover of the first half with an interception of Hart quarterback Nate Mata. Bruner was tackled down at his own 2-yard line but Bonner needed just one play to capitalize on his defensive back’s play. Bonner took the first play of the drive 98 yards to the house to put Valencia up 27-7.
Vikings coach Larry Muir knows he has to find any way possible to get Bonner the ball.
“Every week, you better figure out a way to make sure he’s a part of the game plan,” Muir said. “He’s a special player and again, he’s gotten better and better. I really do think he’s a much better back than he was seven weeks ago. He’s gotten better and better, with a lot of subtle things, but he’s done a really good job.”
Valencia’s defensive line was one of many Viking groups to show up for the battle for first place. The front four all played well in stopping Hart’s ground and pound game with workhorse back Zach Rogozik, who was hot off a 300-yard game.
Rogozik is dangerous on the ground and in the screen pass game but Valencia was ready nearly every time the Hart back touched the ball.
“It was a team effort but the defensive line played well,” Muir said. “We were moving some guys in and out, and all those guys stepped up and did a good job. And in then the secondary, I thought Bruner did a really nice job on (Parker) Maxwell.”
Rogozik scored on Hart’s second drive of the game on a 21-yard touchdown but the team just couldn’t find enough rhythm to punch in enough scores to win.
Rogozik still finished with over 100 all-purpose yards.
Hart began the game again with starting quarterback Jacob Paisano, who had missed the last two games with a shoulder injury.
Mata got the start and had another solid showing against the Valencia defense. Paisano was dressed and ready to go at kick-off but remained on the sideline in what looked like another inactive week for the quarterback. However, Hart made the call at halftime to put its junior starter in the game to try and fuel some life into his team.
Paisano entered the game trailing 30-7 in Hart’s first drive of the second half. The junior played very conservatively, taking slides and running out of bounds, in an attempt to not re-abrogate his injury.
The quarterback was able to lead his team to a few first downs but couldn’t find points once in the red zone.
Mata checked back in late and the game and hit tight end Oliver Welch for a touchdown.
The Vikings felt written off following their 0-4 preseason but now are in the driver’s seat for a second consecutive league championship.
“With the doubt we’ve been given all season, no one’s no one’s like trusted our ability to go far in this because of our start of our season,” Bretthauer said. “We just wanted to prove everyone wrong and I think tonight we did that beating a solid team like Hart. Now we’re just focusing on that bell, winning league and going to CIF.”
Valencia returns home on Friday to host Castaic at 7 p.m. while Hart takes its bye week ahead of its matchup with Saugus in two weeks.
“There’s no question there’s still things we’ve got to fix,” Muir said. “There’s still things we can get better on. We’ve got to keep climbing these last two weeks. And it’s critical that we keep climbing as we get into the playoffs in a couple weeks. The job is next week to go 1-0 against Castaic and that’s gonna be another challenge.”
