“The bell stays home.”
Those are the words of players from the Valencia football team shouting collectively after the Vikings defeated Hart, 45-26, at College of the Canyons’ Cougar Stadium on Friday and won the Foothill League title for the fourth-consecutive season.
Valencia coach Larry Muir, who has been at the helm of the Vikings since 2005, won his 15th title as the head coach and believes this year’s team had the resiliency and tools to accomplish history for him and the program.
“It was just great to see them on their journey, and watch their growth and who they become as a football team, and the bond that they’ve created, I think that’s more important than anything,” Muir said afterward. “We’re now in week 10, now we’re a different football team. But that’s contributed to who they are and the work that they put into it. So that’s an awesome journey to be a part of.”
For Valencia, the win marked more than just the Victory Bell — a trophy provided by The Signal to the Santa Clarita Valley’s top high school football team — along with bragging rights and the Foothill League title.
It also put the Vikings ahead in their all-time record against Hart.
Going into Friday’s Foothill League championship, the record between Valencia and Hart was tied 16-16-1. And with the win over Hart on Friday, the Vikings hold a winning record against Hart for the first time in program history.
But winning on Friday didn’t start easy for the Vikings.
“We were kind of making this thing bigger than it needed to be,” Muir said. “Instead of concentrating on the small things that allow you to be who you are. We weren’t doing that in the first half.”
In Friday’s win, the Vikings tried to take control of the game early.
The Hawks had other plans.
After a 47-yard touchdown connection from Hart junior quarterback Camren Ketner to Matix Frithsmith, the Hawks looked to have control of the momentum in the first quarter.
And after the Vikings fumbled off the kickoff return on the following play, the Hawks looked in cruise control to begin the game.
But the Vikings remained calm under pressure.
Senior running back Nico Funez led Valencia’s offense to the end zone and capitalized with a 7-yard touchdown run to take the lead, and scored again in the second quarter off a 6-yard run to keep the Vikings’ hopes alive.
But the Hawks were relentless and led with Ketner’s two-touchdown performance that gave way to the Hawks leading 20-17 heading into halftime.
For Muir, the back-and-forth first half was nerve-wracking but he never lost faith in his team to make the big plays.
“When you get between the lines, football is not brain surgery. It’s a simple game,” Muir said of what he told his players at halftime.
But in a game of high school football, all it takes is one big play to control the tempo of the game.
And that’s exactly what Valencia got when Anthony Vernon opened the second half with a 60-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
“We knew they didn’t want to kick deep. So, we were trying to maneuver our guys around and hopefully (Caysen) Badawi or Anthony Vernon got their hands on it,” Muir said.
In the third quarter, the Vikings scored a total of 21 points with Funez leading the offense with a rushing touchdown on the ground and one through the air off a 44-yard pass to Badawi.
In the end, the Vikings’ defense allowed the lone second-half touchdown to Frithsmith and prevented the Hawks from scoring again.
Ketner ended the day tossing for 277 yards through the air on 19 for 29 pass attempts.
As for Frithsmith, the Vikings held the Foothill League’s leading rusher for 59 yards and two touchdowns.
And for Funez, the senior running back led the Vikings’ offense with 63 yards on the ground along with three touchdowns.
Sophomore quarterback Evan McCalister completed seven for nine pass attempts for 138 yards through the air.
With the win, Valencia football won the program’s 15th Foothill League title under Muir. And with the Foothill League title, Victory Bell, and bragging rights, the Vikings carry much-needed momentum going into the playoffs.
While the Vikings wait for what division and where they’ll play, Muir is looking forward to enjoying the fruits of Friday’s win and looking to correct mistakes from the victory and get better for the playoffs, set to begin next week.
“No matter what, we got to correct our mistakes. We made so many mistakes there in the first half. We’re going to need to correct,” Muir said.
The loss dropped the Hawks to 8-2 in the season, but the defeat didn’t shake head coach Jake Goossen-Brown.
Although he’ll have to wait another year for him and the Hawks to end the season as Foothill League champions, he has his eyes set toward the next phase of the year: the postseason.
“Everything from here on out that we previously did, doesn’t matter,” he said. “Our goal is to be 1-0 next week and keep fighting.”
The Southern Section is set to release the playoff pairings for football on Sunday morning, which will feature when and where teams will play in Friday’s first round.
