Heading into Friday night, the Valencia Vikings were amid a three-game playoff losing streak with every defeat coming in the first round of the postseason.
As of 2025, the Vikings will need to wait another year to break that streak as the Palos Verdes Sea Kings defeated Valencia, 42-34, and the Vikings were eliminated from the Division 3 playoffs.
“I’m proud of the work that they’ve put in on the field to be the Vikings, to be Viking football,” Valencia head coach Larry Muir said. “The scoreboard doesn’t determine who they are and the work that they put in and the standards that they put on themselves. And so, it’s been an honor to coach these guys and be with these guys and heck, I’ve learned more from them than from me, so, it’s just a brutal way to end this season.”
All year long, Valencia’s identity has been to utilize the tandem of Brian Bonner and Brady Bretthauer. And on the team’s first drive of the game, they did just so.
“Brian Bonner.”
The name that the Valencia student section yelled all night, and with good reason as the senior running back and University of Washington commit scored the first touchdown of the game.
Following a three-and-out from Palos Verdes, Bonner cashed in for a 50-yard touchdown from a Bretthauer pass.
Following the score, Valencia’s momentum didn’t stop.
Bretthauer threw his second touchdown pass of the game to Nico Funez for 71 yards, and the Vikings took a 14-0 lead with a minute left in the opening quarter.
But a touchdown on fourth and 15 from Palos Verdes kept the Sea Kings in the game.
After the score from Palos Verdes, the Vikings didn’t waste any time extending the lead as Bretthauer scrambled for a 39-yard touchdown to close out the opening quarter.
In the second quarter, the Vikings and Sea Kings exchanged touchdowns with another Bretthauer touchdown pass to Bonner and Palos Verdes quarterback Ryan Rakowski throwing one of his own.
But in the second half, the tides began to turn.
The Vikings won the coin toss prior to the game and deferred to receive the ball first in the second half, but the would-be advantage was snatched away, quite literally.
A fumble on the opening drive of the second half by Valencia handed the Sea Kings field position at the Vikings’ 30-yard line. And a few plays later, the Sea Kings cut the Valencia lead to six following a touchdown.
And with three minutes left to go in the third quarter, the Vikings fumbled the ball again, and Palos Verdes scored on the next drive to take the lead.
In a game the Vikings once led 27-7, the team trailed by one heading into the fourth quarter.
While the Valencia stands remained stunned, Bretthauer wasn’t.
On the last play of the third quarter, the senior quarterback threw a touchdown pass to Anthony Vernon and resurrected the Vikings fans as the team took back the lead.
But a defensive mistake in Valencia’s secondary cost the Vikings as Palos Verdes’ Rakowski found an open receiver in the end zone and took a 35-34 lead with eight minutes left.
In the fourth quarter, it collapsed.
Back-to-back series-ending fumbles by Valencia’s offense ended the chances of any comeback for the Vikings.
Palos Verdes capitalized on the turnovers and extended its lead to 42-35 late in the game and ran the clock down to win.
With the loss, the season ends for Valencia, a year in which the Vikings accomplished their third straight Foothill League title and extended the team’s league winning streak.
For Muir, the loss serves as a reminder that football is a game of life and that there will always be lessons to learn following a loss.
“The life lessons that you learned from this is what’s going to carry you for the rest of your life,” he said. “And as long as you’re teaching those things and you learn from those things and you understand those things, and recognize them and grow from it, then it is what it is, and that’s what football players and warriors do on the field of competition, is you put yourself out there, and you lay it all on the line, and then you learn from it, and you grow from it, and you become a better person and more of a competitor or just get unbelievable growth out of those moments.”
