La Serna football dominates Santa Fe to win Del Rio League title – Whittier Daily News

WHITTIER – The La Serna football team is once again Del Rio League champions after a dominant 49-7 victory over Santa Fe at Pioneer High School on Friday night.

Lancers quarterback Grady Long threw for 107 yards and two touchdowns and also caught a 36-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Bonilla.

“We’ve just been rolling as an offense,” Long said. “Our O-line has been playing great. Giving me good time in the pocket. Receivers have been making plays. We’re just playing football and having fun.”

Coming into Friday’s game, both La Serna (7-3, 4-0) and Santa Fe (7-3, 3-1) were undefeated in league play. But the Lancers earned the victory with help from six consecutive touchdowns to start the game.

“We were their Super Bowl,” Long said following Friday game. “So we just had to show what we could do and keep doing what we’ve been doing. Keep getting better and get a good football win.”

When Friday’s game started, Santa Fe looked poised to score on its first drive after leading receiver Sebastian Macias came away with a 56-yard reception to put his team in position to score. But La Serna’s defense wouldn’t break forcing them to turn the ball over on downs after an Xavier Nunez sack.

“They hit a play from the start and we just went back to business,” La Serna coach Andy George said. “We never wavered and kept them out of the endzone on that drive.”

Macias played a vital part in any success Santa Fe had on Friday night as he had seven receptions for 135 yards.

“We have talent across the board,” Santa Fe coach Ryan Bateman said. “We do have talented receivers.”

When La Serna’s offense took the field, they needed only three plays to score. Julio Alcaraz ran the ball for 36 yards to start things offensively for the Lancers. Long finished the drive with an 18-yard pass to Miguel Tellez and a two-yard touchdown pass to Eli Perez giving them the first score of the night.

Long’s other touchdown pass was to Emre Law for 29 yards. His one receiving touchdown was on a double reverse trick play that ended with him catching the ball for 36 yards and taking it into the endzone for a 21-0 lead.

The Lancers running game was also effective in their win as they had three different rushers earn touchdowns. The first came from a 30-yard run by Daniel Moreno. Ayden Contreras later scored on a 53-yard run and Bonilla had a five-yard run near the end of the game.

After Long threw his first touchdown pass, Santa Fe went downfield for 58 yards looking to score but came up two yards short after Kaimana Tufaga made an incredible one-handed interception to prevent the Chiefs from scoring in the second quarter.

“So I was reading tight end and natural instincts I just stuck my hand up and I caught the ball,” Tufaga said.

Tufaga had a second interception with less than three minutes in the second quarter that was returned for a touchdown.

Santa Fe’s first score came in the third quarter on a 61-yard rushing touchdown by Devin Clark who finished the season with 22 touchdowns.

Clark who has carried the Chiefs on his back all season had just 88 yards which is short of his average of 133 yards per game. Santa Fe tried to get him going all night by handing him the ball 14 times but La Serna’s defense was resilient and found a way to keep him quiet for most of the night.

“Our offense goes through Devin,” Bateman said prior to kickoff. “With that said the offensive line plays a part in that.”